BS  2505  .G54  1899 

Gilbert,  George  Holley,  1854 

-1930. 
The  student's  life  of  Paul 


THE   STUDENT'S    LIFE    OF    PAUL 


£W^' 


THE 


STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 


BY 


GEORGE  HOLLEY  GILBERT,  Ph.D.,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  NEW  TESTAMENT  LITERATURE  AND 
INTERPRETATION  IN  CHICAGO  THEOLOGICAL 

SEMINARY 
AUTHOR  OF  "THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  JESUS" 


"Nzto  ff  orft 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1899 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1899, 
Bv  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Nortoaoti  Ijjrtas 

J.  S.  Cushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  k  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

The  aim  of  this  book  is  threefold  :  first,  to  present 
the  biography  of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles 
entirely  apart  from  a  study  of  his  theological  teach- 
ing, which  has  not  hitherto  been  done.  The  impor- 
tance of  Paul's  life  and  the  importance  of  his  teaching 
fully  justify  a  separate  treatment  of  each,  and  such 
treatment  is  also  in  the  interest  of  a  clear  and  forcible 
presentation  both  of  his  biography  and  of  his  teaching. 

Second,  to  present  the  facts  in  as  simple  and  sci- 
entific a  manner  as  possible,  without  comment  and 
without  rhetorical  elaboration,  assuming  that  what  the 
reader  desires  to  know  first  of  all,  and  what  he  surely 
ought  to  know  first  of  all,  is  the  facts,  or  the  nearest 
possible  approximation  to  the  facts. 

Third,  to  present  the  material  in  an  accessible  and 

usable  form.     To  this  end  the  chapters  are  subdivided 

into  numbered   paragraphs,   full   references   are  made 

to  the   Biblical  sources,  and  abundant,   though  by  no 

means  exhaustive,  references  to  the  modern  literature 

of  the  subject. 

G.   H.   G. 

Chicago, 

January  14,  1899. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

Paul's  Childhood  in  Tarsus     .        .        .    '    .        .        .  i 

i .   The  City I 

2.  The  Jews  of  the  Diaspora 3 

3.  Paul's  Family  and  Boyhood 9 


CHAPTER   II 

Paul  at  the  Feet  of  Gamaliel 
1.    Sent  to  Jerusalem 


Gamaliel  I.  and  Rabbinic  Education 
Rabbinism  in  Paul 


12 
12 

17 


CHAPTER   III 

Paul  as  Inquisitor  and  Persecutor 

1.  Return  to  Tarsus         ..... 

2.  Stephen  and  the  Larger  View  of  Christianity 

3.  Persecution  by  Paul 


19 

19 
21 
24 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Vision  of  Jesus  and  the  Changed  Life 

1.  The  Testimony  of  the  Epistles 

2.  The  Testimony  of  Acts 

3.  Preparation  for  the  Vision  . 

4.  The  Commission 

5.  The  First  Days  in  Damascus 


27 
27 
3° 
34 
38 
39 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   V 

PAGE 

The  Period  of  Obscurity 42 

i.    In  Arabia 42 

2.  In  Damascus       ........  44 

3.  From  Damascus  to  Jerusalem 46 

4.  In  Syria  and  Cilicia 52 


CHAPTER  VI 


The  Work  in  Antioch 


1.  The  City     . 

2.  The  Origin  of  the  Church  in  Antioch  . 

3.  Paul's  Mission  to  Jerusalem  in  the  Judean  Famine 

4.  The  Name  Christian 


57 

57 
58 
62 
67 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  First  Missionary  Tour  from  Antioch 

1.  Barnabas  and  Paul  set  apart 

2.  The  Tour  of  Cyprus    . 

3.  The  Work  in  Pisidian  Antioch 

4.  The  Work  in  Iconium 

5.  The  Work  in  Lystra  and  Derbe 

6.  The  Journey  Homeward 


69 

69 
72 
76 
81 
83 
85 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Struggle  for  Gentile  Freedom 

1 .  The  Problem  of  the  Sources 

2.  The  "False  Brethren" 

3.  The  Compromise         .... 

4.  The  Subsequent  History  of  the  Decree 


87 

87 

94 

96 

102 


CONTENTS 


IX 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  Introduction  of  the  Gospel  into  Europe 

i.  The  Inception  of  the  European  Tour 

2.  Seeking  New  Fields    . 

3.  Paul's  Vision  in  Troas 

4.  The  First  Church  in  Europe 

5.  The  Work  in  Thessalonica 

6.  The  Work  in  Beroea  . 

7.  Paul  in  Athens    . 

8.  The  Work  in  Corinth 

9.  Distinguished  Colaborers  of  Paul 


PAGE 

107 
107 
109 
112 
114 
118 
123 
125 
130 
135 


CHAPTER  X 


Paul  in  Ephesus 

1.  The  City 

2.  The  Disciples  of  John  the  Baptist 

3.  Extent  of  the  Work  in  Ephesus  . 

4.  Special  Features  of  Paul's  Work  in  Ephesus 

5.  The  Close  of  Paul's  Work  in  Ephesus 


142 
142 

143 
146 
149 
153 


CHAPTER  XI 

Paul's  Second  Visit  to  Europe  and  Last  Journey  to 
Jerusalem 

1 .  The  Collection  for  the  Poor  Christians  in  Jerusalem 

2.  The  Troubles  in  Corinth 

3.  In  Macedonia  and  Achaia 

4.  The  Fifth  and  Last  Journey  to  Jerusalem    . 


157 

157 
160 
166 
168 


CHAPTER  XII 

Arrested  in  Jerusalem,  Imprisoned  in  Cesarea  .        .     175 

1.  The  Concession  to  Jewish  Prejudice   ....     175 

2.  Paul  assaulted  by  Jews  and  saved  by  Roman  Soldiers     179 

3.  Paul's  Speech  from  the  Castle  Stairs    .         .         .         .181 


CONTENTS 


4.  Paul  in  the  Sanhedrin 

5.  Paul's  Final  Departure  from  Jerusalem 

6.  Two  Years  in  Caesarea 


PAGE 

184 
189 
191 


CHAPTER  XIII 


The  Journey  to  Rome  in  Bonds 

•     195 

1 .   The  Appeal  to  Caesar  .... 

•     195 

2.   From  Caesarea  to  Myra 

.     200 

3.    From  Myra  to  Malta  .... 

.     203 

4.   From  Malta  to  Puteoli 

.     207 

5.    From  Puteoli  to  Rome 

.     210 

CHAPTER  XIV 


At  the  Bar  of  Nero 

1.  The  Character  of  Paul's  Roman  Imprisonment 

2.  Evangelistic  Labors  in  Rome 

3.  The  Trial 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  Close  of  Paul's  Life         .... 

1 .  The  Tour  from  Rome  Eastward  . 

2.  The  Second  Imprisonment  and  Death  of  Paul 


216 
216 
218 
222 


225 
225 
229 


APPENDICES 

I.     The  Sources  of  Paul's  Biography    . 
II.     The  Chronology  of  Paul's  Life 
III.     The  Churches  of  Galatia 


233 
242 
260 


Index    of    Passages    from    Acts    and    the    Pauline 

Epistles 273 

Index  of  Literature  cited 279 


THE 
STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

CHAPTER   I 

Paul's  Childhood  in  Tarsus 

I.    The  City. 

About  halfway  between  Jerusalem,  the  capital  of 
Judaism,  and  Constantinople,  the  capital  of  the  first 
Christian  Emperor  of  Rome,  stood  Tarsus,  the  birth- 
place and  early  home  of  that  man  who,  more  than  any 
other,  carried  Christianity  from  Judea  throughout  the 
Roman  empire.  The  city  was  in  Level  Cilicia,  sixty 
miles  west  of  the  field  where  Alexander  defeated 
Darius  (333  B.C.),  129  miles  west  of  Antioch,  the  first 
metropolis  of  Gentile  Christianity,  and  5 1 5  miles  north- 
west of  Jerusalem.  It  was  situated  on  the  Cydnus 
River,  twelve  miles  from  the  Mediterranean  coast,  for 
which  distance  the  river  was  navigable  in  Paul's  time. 
It  was  called  the  capital  of  Cilicia  when  Cicero  was 
governor  of  the  province  (51-50  B.C.),  and  later  bore  the 
title  of  metropolis.  It  had  been  a  free  city  for  a  century 
before  Paul's  birth,  and  as  such  possessed  certain  rights 
and  privileges,  the  chief  of  which  were  control  of  its 


2  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

own  finances,  which  included  the  power  to  levy  taxes 
within  its  own  territory  and  to  coin  money,  jurisdiction 
over  its  own  citizens  and  also  over  foreigners  who 
sojourned  there,  freedom  from  the  land  tax  levied  by 
the  Roman  government,  and  freedom  from  a  garrison  of 
Roman  soldiers.1 

It  is  not  quite  certain  whether  Cilicia  was  a  province 
at  the  time  of  Paul's  birth,  or  only  a  part  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Syria.  The  natural  inference  from  Acts  xxiii. 
34,  35,  is  that,  at  the  time  of  Paul's  arrest  in  Jerusalem 
and  imprisonment  in  Csesarea,  Cilicia  was  a  separate 
province.  When  Felix,  the  Roman  procurator,  received 
the  prisoner,  he  at  once  asked  to  what  province  he 
belonged,  and  he  was  informed  that  he  was  from  Cilicia. 
But  Marquardt2  is  of  the  opinion  that  Cilicia  was  under 
the  government  of  Syria  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  first  century,  and  this  view  is  adopted  by  many 
scholars.3 

Tarsus  was  a  centre  of  education  and  culture,  and 
ranked  with  Athens  and  Alexandria.  Strabo  ranked 
it  above  these  cities  in  philosophy  and  general  educa- 
tion. He  said  that  the  men  who  dwelt  there  had  such 
zeal  for  philosophy  and  all  other  instruction  that  they 

1  Marquardt,  Romische  Staatsverwaltung,  I.  78-80  ;  Mommsen,  R'd- 
misches  Staatsrecht,  III.  655-659. 

2  Romische  Staatsverwaltutig,  I.  386,  387. 
8  Eg.,  Schurer,  Zahn,  and  Hort. 


PAUL'S  CHILDHOOD   IN  TARSUS  3 

surpassed  Athens  and  Alexandria,  and  any  other  place 
that  can  be  named  in  which  there  have  been  schools 
and  studies  of  philosophy.1  It  was  the  home  of  the 
poet  Aratus  (270  B.C.),  from  whose  words  Paul  quoted 
in  the  Areopagus  address.2  Apollonius,  a  contemporary 
of  Paul  and  a  native  of  Tyana,  a  city  about  seventy-five 
miles  north  of  Paul's  home,  studied  in  Tarsus.  In  later 
years,  Paul  must  have  known  his  name  and  works  well, 
for  Apollonius  was  one  of  the  most  striking  characters 
of  the  first  century,  whether  he  was  "a  sage,  an  im- 
postor, or  a  fanatic."  A  little  before  the  time  of  Paul, 
Strabo,  the  geographer,  studied  in  Tarsus  (54  b.c- 
24  a.d.),  and  with  him  the  Stoic  philosopher  Atheno- 
dorus  Cananites,  a  teacher  of  the  Emperor  Augustus ; 
and  two  centuries  after  Paul's  day  we  find  such  eminent 
men  studying  in  Tarsus  as  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia 
(1429)  and  Chrysostom  (^407).  Strabo  says  that  in 
his  time  Rome  was  full  of  learned  men  from  Tarsus 
and  Alexandria.3 

/ 
2.    The  Jews  of  the  Diaspora.       ^/ 

Paul  was  a  Tew  of  the  Diaspora,  or  Dispersion,  and 

therefore,  at  this  point,  we  may  properly  take  a  rapid 

survey  of   the  location,  numbers,  and  estate  of   these 

scattered   Jews.      Already  in   the   second   century  be- 

1  Strabo,  Muller's  edition,  p.  574.  2  Acts  xvii.  28. 

8  Muller's  edition,  p.  575. 


4  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

fore  the  time  of  Paul,  the  Sibylline  writings  said  that 
every  land  and  sea  was  full  of  Jews.1  Strabo,  in 
a  passage  quoted  by  Josephus,  says,  it  is  hard  to  find 
a  place  in  the  habitable  earth  that  hath  not  admitted 
this  tribe  of  men,  and  is  not  possessed  by  it.2  Philo 
and  Josephus  testify  that  Jews  were  settled  in  all 
the  world,  and  it  was  said  that  Jerusalem  might  be 
called  the  world's  capital  because  of  the  widespread 
Jewish  colonies.  Philo  says  that  there  were  a  mill- 
ion Jews  in  Egypt  in  his  day.  They  were  numer- 
ous in  Rome  from  the  time  of  Pompey,  and  still 
more  numerous  in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor.  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  deported  two  thousand  Jewish  families 
from  Babylon  to  the  cities  of  Phrygia  and  Lydia. 
There  must  have  been  a  large  Jewish  population  in 
Damascus,  for  Josephus  tells  of  the  slaughter  of  ten 
thousand  there  in  the  time  of  Nero.3 

These  Jews  who  were  thus  scattered  throughout 
the  Roman  empire  sometimes  had  the  rights  of 
citizenship  in  the  particular  cities  in  which  they 
lived,  and  sometimes  had  the  rights  of  Roman 
citizenship.4  Paul  had  both.  He  was  a  citizen  oi% 
Tarsus,5  and  also  a  citizen  of  Rome.6  There  were 
many   and   important  cities,  especially  in   Syria,  Asia 

1  Schiirer,  Geschichte  des  Jiidischen  Volkes,  II.  494,  495. 

8  Antiquities,  xiv.  7.  2.  s  Jewish  JVar,  ii.  20.  2. 

4  Schiirer,  II.  533-541.  6  Acts  xxi.  39.  6  Acts  xxii.  28. 


PAUL'S  CHILDHOOD   IN  TARSUS  5 

Minor,  and  Egypt,  in  which  the  Jewish  residents 
had  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Thus  Seleucus  Nica- 
tor,  in  the  third  century  before  Christ,  bestowed 
these  rights  upon  the  Jews  in  all  the  cities  which  he 
founded  in  Asia  and  Syria,1  and  they  still  possessed 
them  in  the  time  of  Josephus.  Likewise  in  the  third 
century,  Antiochus  II.  gave  the  rights  of  citizenship 
to  the  Jews  of  Ephesus  and  some  other  cities  on  the 
coast  of  Asia.2  In  Alexandria,  which  was  founded 
in  part  by  Jews,  they  enjoyed  the  rights  of  citizen- 
ship from  the  first.  Josephus  says  that  a  large 
part  of  the  city  was  allotted  to  them,  and  that  they 
had  an  ethnarch  who  governed  them  as  though  he 
were  the  ruler  of  a  free  republic.3  In  Cyrene, 
which  had  a  large  Jewish  population,  the  Jews  had 
equal  rights  with  the  other  inhabitants.4 

A  considerable  number  of  Jews,  both  in  Rome 
and  elsewhere,  were  Roman  citizens.  The  Libertines, 
who  are  mentioned  in  Acts  vi.  9,  are  generally  re- 
garded as  Jews  who  had  been  manumitted  in  Rome 
and  at  the  same  time  had  been  presented  with 
citizenship,  or  as  the  descendants  of  such  Jews.6 
According  to  Philo,  most  of  the  Jews  in  Rome 
were   Roman   citizens.5      In   like   manner,  there  were 

1  Antiquities,  xii.  3.  1.  8  Antiquities,  xiv.  7.  2. 

2  Schurer,  II.  535.  *  Antiquities,  xvi.  6.  1. 

5  Schurer,  II.  537. 


6  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

numerous  Jews  in  Ephesus,  Sardis,  and  Delos  who 
were  Roman  citizens,1  and  they  were  probably  to  be 
found  in  other  cities. 

The  chief  privileges  of  Roman  citizenship  were 
three:  trial  by  Roman  courts,  freedom  from  dis- 
honorable punishments,  as  scourging  and  crucifixion, 
and  the  right  of  appeal  to  Caesar,  within  certain 
limitations.2 

The  policy  of  the  Roman  government  toward  the 
Jews,  as  also  the  policy  of  Alexander  and  the 
Seleucidae  in  their  time,  was,  in  the  main,  friendly. 
Julius  Caesar,  Augustus,  and  Claudius  dealt  liberally 
with  the  Jews.3  Judaism  had  a  legal  status  nearly 
half  a  century  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era,4  and  this  brought  with  it  to  the  scattered  Jewish 
communities  the  right  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over 
their  own  members,  unless  they  were  Roman  citizens, 
and  also  the  right  to  control  their  property.  This 
latter  point  was  of  great  importance  because  the 
Jews  of  the  Diaspora  might  otherwise  be  hindered  in 
sending  money  to  Jerusalem  for  the  payment  of  the 
temple  dues.5  Of  great  importance  also  was  the 
right  of  the  Jewish  communities  to  try  their  mem- 
bers  according   to   their    own    laws.      This    they   did 

1  Antiquities,  xiv.  io.  13-19.  8  Antiquities,  xvi.  6.  2;  xix.  5.  2,  3. 

2  Schiirer,  II.  538,  539.  4  Schurer,  II.  525. 

6  Antiquities,  xvi.  6.  2-7. 


PAUL'S  CHILDHOOD   IN  TARSUS  7 

both  in  civil  and  criminal  matters.1  Instances  of 
this  right  are  furnished  by  the  life  of  Paul.2 

Further  evidence  of  the  friendliness  of  the  Roman 
government  toward  the  Jews  is  seen  in  the  fact  that 
their  religious  scruples  against  serving  in  the  army  and 
against  any  activity  on  the  Sabbath,  other  than  their 
own  laws  allowed,  were  respected,3  and  when  the  wor- 
ship of  the  emperors  arose  the  Jews  were  exempted 
from  the  obligation,  if  we  except  the  brief  reign  of 
Caligula.4 

The  language  of  the  dispersed  Jews  was  almost 
universally  Greek,  the  language  which  since  the  con- 
quests of  Alexander  had  become  more  and  more  widely 
used  in  the  East,  and  which  as  the  language  of  art  and 
culture  was  cultivated  in  Rome  and  the  West.  This 
was  used  in  the  synagogues  of  the  Jews,5  and  was  the 
language  in  which  their  sacred  writings  were  commonly 
read.  The  Old  Testament  had  been  translated  into 
Greek  in  the  third  and  ^second  centuries  before  Christ. 

The  missionary  activity  of  the  scattered  Jews  in  the 
time  of  Paul  was  considerable,  as  we  see  from  the 
Acts  where  there  is  frequent  mention  of  Gentiles  who 
are  attached  to  the  synagogue  and  who  fear  God.6 
The  same  activity  is  referred  to  by  Jesus,  who  said  that 

1  Schurer,  II.  527,  528.  4  Schiirer,  II.  529,  530. 

2  Acts  ix.  2;   xviii.  14;   xxii.  19;   xxvi.  11.  6  Schurer,  II.  543. 

8  Antiquities,  xiv.  10.  12,  13;  xvi.  6.  2,  4.  6  E.g.,  Acts  xiii.  16,  43. 


8  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

the  Pharisees  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  one 
proselyte.1  Graetz  says  that  more  proselytes  were  made 
in  the  decade  before  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  than  ever 
before.2  Josephus  tells  us  that  most  of  the  women  in 
Damascus  were  proselytes,3  also  that  Queen  Helen 
of  Adiabene,  and  Izates  her  son,  who  became  king, 
were  adherents  of  the  Jews'  religion.4 

The  popular  attitude  of  the  Gentiles  toward  the  Jews 
was  one  of  contempt  and  hatred.  This  was  caused  in 
part  by  the  exclusiveness  of  the  Jews,  and  by  their  out- 
spoken scorn  for  idolatry  and  idolaters.  Tacitus  5  says 
that  whatever  is  held  sacred  by  the  Romans  is  profane 
with  the  Jews,  and  what  in  other  nations  is  unlawful 
and  impure  is  with  them  fully  established.  He  attrib- 
utes to  the  Jews  a  "sullen  and  inveterate  hatred" 
toward  the  rest  of  mankind.  This  entire  passage  in 
Tacitus  is  most  unworthy  of  the  historian,  for  it  betrays 
great  ignorance  regarding  the  facts  and  a  willingness 
to  accept  the  worst  slanders  as  authoritative ;  but  it  is 
just  this  latter  fact  which  makes  his  testimony  valuable 
at  this  point.  It  illustrates  the  widespread  Gentile 
aversion  to  the  Jews.  We  shall  have  more  than  one 
occasion  to  note  how,  in  the  life  of  Paul,  this  bitter  feel- 
ing toward  the  Jews  caused  suffering  to  the  Christian 
missionary,  and  apparently  hindered  his  work. 

1  Matt,  xxiii.  15.  3  Jewish  War,  ii.  20.  2. 

2  History  of  (he  Jews,  II.  215.  4  Antiquities,  xx.  2.  I. 

6  History,  v.  4. 


PAUL'S   CHILDHOOD   IN  TARSUS  9 

3.    The  Family  and  Boyhood  of  Paul. 

Our  knowledge  regarding  the  family  of  Paul  is  very< 
meagre.  He  never  mentions  father  or  mother,  brother 
or  sister.  That  his  father  was  a  Roman  citizen,  we 
know  from  Paul's  word  to  the  chief  captain ; 1  but  we 
cannot  infer  from  the  fact  of  citizenship  that  he  had 
at  least  moderate  wealth.  Manumitted  slaves  were 
frequently  presented  with  citizenship.2  On  the  other 
hand,  the  fact  that  Paul  learned  a  trade  is  not  evidence 
that  his  family  was  poor,  for  the  Jewish  rabbis  taught 
that  it  was  a  man's  duty  to  teach  his  son  a  trade.3 
Paul's  education  in  Jerusalem  is  not  proof  of  wealth, 
for  we  learn  from  Luke  that  a  married  sister  was 
settled  in  Jerusalem  with  whom  he  may  have  lived,4 
and  the  cost  of  instruction  was  probably  small.  Rabbis, 
like  Gamaliel,  who  had  schools  and  who  were  wholly 
occupied  with  them,  may  have  received  presents  from 
scholars  who  were  able  to  make  presents,5  but  these 
were  not  regarded  as  pay  for  teaching  the  law,  which  is 
itself  priceless,  and  must  be  taught  without  price ;  but 
they  were  regarded  as  a  recompense  for  the  rabbi's 
time.6 

Paul's   word   to   Agrippa   that   he    had    lived    after 

1  Acts  xxii.  28.  2  Schurer,  II.  537. 

8  Gfrorer,  Das  Jahrhundert  des  Heils,  I.  160,  161. 
4  Acts  xxiii.  16.  5  Gfrorer,  I.  161. 

6  Weber,  Die  Lehren  des  Talmuds,  p.  126. 


10  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

the  straitest  sect  of  the  Jews'  religion,  his  saying 
before  the  sanhedrin,  "  I  am  a  Pharisee,  a  son  of 
Pharisees,"  and  his  entire  life  before  his  conversion, 
suggest  that  his  father,  though  living  among  the 
Gentiles,  was  a  zealous  observer  of  the  law.  It 
seems  not  improbable  that  the  sister  in  Jerusalem 
remained  a  strict  Jew  and  hostile  to  Christianity,  for 
had  she  shared  Paul's  faith,  we  might  have  expected 
some  indication  of  the  fact,  expressed  or  implied,  and 
possibly,  as  Ramsay 1  suggests,  the  fact  that  the  con- 
spiracy to  kill  Paul  was  known  to  his  sister's  son 
implies  that  she  was  in  touch  with  the  hostile  Jews. 

It  is  not  quite  certain  what  Paul  means  when  he 
says  that  he  is  a  Hebrew  of  Hebrezvs,2  but  the  phrase 
probably  signifies  no  more  than  this,  that  Paul  was 
of  pure  Jewish  descent.  It  is  useless  to  seek  an  ex- 
planation by  means  of  the  tradition  that  Paul's  parents 
had  come  from  Palestine ;  for  even  if  the  tradition 
could  be  trusted,  it  is  certain  that  Paul  himself  was 
born  in  Tarsus,3  and  therefore  was  a  Hellenist. 

Since  Paul's  home  was  that  of  zealous  Pharisees, 
we  may  infer  that  he  was  most  carefully  instructed  in 
the  Scriptures  from  earliest  youth.4  What  Josephus 
says  of  the  training  of  all  Jewish  children,  though 
manifestly  somewhat  exaggerated,  may  well  have  been 

1  St.  Paul  the  Traveller  and  the  Roman  Citizen,  p.  35. 

2  Phil.  iii.  5.  3  Acts  xxii.  3.  4  Comp.  2  Tim.  iii.  15. 


PAUL'S   CHILDHOOD   IN   TARSUS  II 

applicable  in  a  good  degree  to  Paul.  He  says  that 
the  Jews  learned  the  law  as  soon  as  they  became 
sensible  of  anything,  and  had  it  engraven  on  their 
souls  so  that  they  could  tell  the  whole  of  it  more 
easily  than  they  could  tell  their  own  names.1  We 
can  only  conjecture  what  the  school  life  of  Paul  may 
have  been  while  he  was  a  boy  in  Tarsus.  It  seems 
probable  that  schools  in  connection  with  the  syna- 
gogue date  back  as  far  as  the  earlier  part  of  the 
first  Christian  century,2  and  if  so  Paul  may  have 
attended  such  a  school.  There  as  at  home  his  study 
would  have  been  study  of  the  law,  probably  in  Greek. 
If  Paul  went  to  Jerusalem  at  an  early  age,  as  we 
hold  that  he  did,  it  is  not  likely  that  he  attended 
a  Gentile  school  in  Tarsus ;  and  as  to  the  university, 
if  he  ever  listened  to  lectures  there  at  all,  it  must 
have  been  after  his  rabbinic  course  in  Jerusalem  had 
been  completed. 

1  Against  Apion,  II.  19.  2  Schiirer,  II.  353. 


CHAPTER   II 

Paul  at  the  Feet  of  Gamaliel 

I.    Sent  to  Jerusalem. 

At  what  age  Paul  was  taken  to  Jerusalem  to  re- 
ceive instruction  in  the  law  we  cannot  definitely  as- 
certain. He  was  evidently  quite  a  young  boy.  This 
is  implied  when  he  says,  "  I  am  a  Jew,  born  in  Tarsus, 
but  brought  up  in  this  city."  1  It  is  implied  also  when 
he  says  that  his  manner  of  life  from  his  youth  was 
known  to  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem.2  If  he  was  sent  to 
Jerusalem  when  he  became  a  "son  of  the  law,"  which, 
however,  cannot  be  affirmed,  then  we  know  his  age 
within  narrow  limits,  but  still  not  absolutely,  for  it 
was  after  Paul's  day  that  the  thirteenth  year  was 
fixed  as  the  time  when  a  Jewish  boy  became  respon- 
sible to  do  the  whole  law.3  Prior  to  this,  the  age  at 
which  Israelites  were  counted  responsible  for  keeping 
the  law  was  the  age  of  puberty,  and  therefore  not  the 
same  year  in  every  case. 

Therefore  we  must  be  content  with  the  general 
knowledge  that  Paul  went  to  Jerusalem  to  enter  on  a 

1  Acts  xxii.  3.  a  Acts  xxvi.  4.  3  Schiirer,  II.  354,  355. 

12 


PAUL  AT  THE   FEET  OF  GAMALIEL  1 3 

course  of  rabbinic  training  when  he  was  a  young  boy. 
It  was  not  necessary  that  he  should  go  to  Jerusalem 
in  order  to  secure  this  training,  for  there  were  com- 
petent teachers  elsewhere,  doubtless  in  the  neighbor- 
ing Antioch  with  its  great  synagogue  and  large 
Jewish  population  ;  but  it  was  altogether  natural  that 
he  should  go  to  Jerusalem,  for  there  were  not  only 
the  most  famous  schools  of  Hillel  and  Schammai,  men 
whose  work  belonged  to  the  recent  past,  but  there 
was  the  temple  with  its  imperishable  fascination  for 
the  Jewish  heart.  If  Paul  was  ambitious  to  become 
a  rabbi,  no  place  of  study  could  for  a  moment  rival  in 
attractiveness  the  holy  city. 

2.    Gamaliel  I.  and  Rabbinic  Education. 

Paul  was  fortunate  in  his  teacher.  Gamaliel  I.  may 
or  may  not  have  been  a  grandson  of  Hillel,1  he  was 
certainly  of  a  kindred  spirit,  and  the  most  illustrious 
representative  of  the  school  of  Hillel.  Tradition  rep- 
resents him  as  humble  minded,  one  who  served  those 
who  were  inferior  to  him  in  rank,  though  the  rabbis 
usually  laid  great  stress  upon  their  claim  to  honor.2 
In  the  Book  of  Acts,  Gamaliel  appears  as  a  man  of 
courage,  and  yet  conciliatory ;  a  man  of  somewhat  lib- 
eral mind,  and  the  most  influential  person  in  the  san- 

1  Gfrorer  and  Strack  hold  that  Gamaliel  was  a  grandson  of  Hillel,  Schiirer 
that  he  was  not.  2  Weber,  Die  Lehren  des  Talmud,  p.  129. 


14  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

hedrin.1  His  words  in  favor  of  a  mild  policy  toward 
the  apostles  are  not  evidence  of  an  inward  leaning 
toward  Christianity :  they  are  evidence  rather  of  a 
fatalistic  philosophy.  If  this  movement  be  of  men, 
he  argued,  it  will  be  overthrown  by  divine  providence, 
and  we  need  not  stain  our  hands  with  the  blood  of 
Peter  and  the  others.  It  is  manifest  that  he  expected 
such  an  overthrow  of  the  Christian  movement;  and 
that  just  as  Theudas  and  his  followers  were  dispersed, 
and  as  Judas  of  Galilee  and  his  adherents  were  de- 
stroyed, so  this  sect  would  come  to  naught. 

We  can  form  only  a  general  idea  of  the  substance 
and  the  method  of  the  education  which  Paul  received 
in  the  school  of  Gamaliel.  The  rabbis  met  their  pu- 
pils in  the  courts  of  the  temple.2  The  teacher  occu- 
pied a  high  seat,  while  his  pupils  sat  on  the  floor  in 
front  of  him.  As  Gamaliel  was  a  famous  teacher,  it 
is  probable  that  the  number  of  pupils  gathered  before 
him  was  great.  Josephus  mentions  two  teachers,  Judas 
and  Matthias  by  name,  who  in  the  time  of  Herod  the 
Great  were  surrounded  by  a  multitude  of  young  men.3 
And  so  Paul  may  have  been  one  of  several  hundred 
students  who  waited  upon  the  instruction  of  Gamaliel. 

The  work  of  a  Jewish  school  was  chiefly  memoriz- 
ing.    The  teacher   repeated   again    and   again    an   ex- 

1  Acts  v.  34-40.  2  Luke  ii.  46;  xx.  1,  etc. 

8  Jewish  War,  i.  33.  2. 


PAUL  AT  THE   FEET   OF  GAMALIEL  15 

planation  of  a  passage  of  Scripture,  and  the  scholars 
were  required  to  commit  it  to  memory.  Hence  it 
came  to  pass  that  the  very  word  repeat  meant  to 
teach,  and  one  of  the  two  great  divisions  of  the 
Talmud  is  called  Miskna,  that  is,  repetition.  By  this 
method  of  teaching  the  imagination  was  suffocated 
and  the  memory  strengthened.1  The  ideal  of  the 
student  was  to  be  like  a  well-plastered  cistern,  which 
loses  no  drop  of  the  water  which  is  put  into  it.2  How 
long  this  course  of  study  usually  continued  in  the  case 
of  those  who  aspired  to  be  teachers  cannot  be  defi- 
nitely stated.  Sometimes,  at  least,  it  required  twelve 
years  to  complete  the  course.3  A  student  was  not 
qualified  to  teach  as  the  head  of  a  school  until  he 
was  forty  years  old  and  knew  the  entire  traditional 
law. 

The  power  of  the  rabbi  over  his  pupils  was  great, 
and  the  honor  which  he  demanded  was  higher  than 
that  which  was  shown  to  parents.  The  pupil  might 
not  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  teacher  except  at 
the  time  of  morning  and  evening  prayer.4  The  rabbi 
regarded  himself  as  a  mediator  between  God  and  men, 
who  made  known  the  divine  will  and  helped  men  to 
keep  it.  The  combined  honor  and  power  of  king, 
priest,   and  prophet  were  supposed   to   belong   to   the 

1  Gfrorer,  I.  160.  8  Weber,  p.  30. 

2  Schiirer,  II.  264,  265.  4  Weber,  p.  128. 


y 


1 6  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

scribe.     To   receive   him  was   equivalent   to   receiving 
the  Shekinah  itself. 

The  content  of  rabbinic  teaching  was,  theoretically,  % 
the  law  of  Moses,  but  in  reality  it  was  the  traditional 
interpretation  of  that  law.  It  began  with  the  memo- 
rizing of  the  text,  and  ended  with  the  memorizing  of 
the  vast  traditional  interpretation  of  the  text.  This 
was  regarded  as  of  far  the  greater  value.1  The  in- 
struction was  chiefly  religious.  The  principal  subject 
in  civil  law  which  was  discussed  was  divorce.  There 
was  no  place  for  the  history  and  literature  of  any 
Gentile  people,  no  place  for  art  or  philosophy,  or  for 
such  knowledge  of  science  as  was  then  extant  among 
the  Egyptians  or  Greeks. 

That  there  was  some  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin 
among  educated  Jews  in  Palestine  is  well  known.  The 
existence  of  a  prohibition  against  teaching  one's  chil- 
dren Greek  —  a  prohibition  which  dates  from  the 
seventh  Christian  decade  —  indicates  plainly  that  there 
was  a  tendency  to  do  just  this  thing.  A  Hellenist, 
like  Paul,  who  spoke  Greek,  may  of  course  have  read 
Greek  literature  even  while  studying  in  Jerusalem,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  Paul  as  a  pupil  of  Gamaliel 
was  instructed  in  any  subject  except  the  law  and  its 
traditional  interpretation. 

1  Gfrorer,  I.  151 ;   Schiirer,  II.  264;  Weber,  p.  103. 


PAUL  AT  THE   FEET  OF  GAMALIEL  \J 

3.    Rabbinism  in  Paul. 

We  should  expect  to  find  rabbinic  ideas  and  rabbinic 
modes  of  thought  in  the  Christian  Paul.  In  some 
fundamental  things  his  views  were  totally  changed  by 
conversion  to  Christianity,  and  yet  he  remained  a  Jew. 
He  retained  his  Pharisaic  zeal  for  God,  and  the  heri- 
tage of  his  Jewish  home  and  school  is  manifest  in 
his  thought  to  the  end  of  his  life.  There  is  a  lack 
of  the  historical  sense  in  his  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture, but  this  belonged  rather  to  the  age  than  simply 
to  the  rabbinic  school.  Again,  Paul  draws  from  Jew- 
ish tradition,  and  communicates  things  which  are  not 
found  in  the  Old  Testament.  Thus  he  gives  the 
names  of  the  magicians  who  withstood  Moses,1  and 
he  says  that  the  law  was  mediated  by  angels.2  He 
speaks  of  a  rock  which  followed  the  Israelites  in  the 
wilderness.3  He  refers  to  these  points  just  as  any 
rabbi  might  have  done,  making  no  distinction  between 
tradition  and  the  Old  Testament.  Again,  Paul  occa- 
sionally allegorizes  as  the  rabbis  did.  Thus  Sarah 
and  Hagar  are  two  covenants.  Hagar  is  Mount  Sinai 
in  Arabia,  and  Sarah  is  the  Jerusalem  which  is  above.4 
In  like  manner,  the  rock  which  followed  the  Israel- 
ites in  the  wilderness  was  Christ.5  Once  more,  there 
are  sections  of  Paul's  teaching  which  have  a  marked 

1  2  Tim.  iii.  8.  2  Gal.  iii.  19.  8  I  Cor.  x.  4. 

4  Gal.  iv.  22-25.  6  l  Cor.  x.  4. 

c 


1 8  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

rabbinic  or  Jewish  color,  for  example,  his  angelology 
and  eschatology.  Thus  in  common  with  the  rabbis 
he  knows  of  several  orders  of  angels,  both  good  and 
bad,  and  he  departs  notably  from  Jesus  in  the  promi- 
nence which  the  subject  has  in  his  writings,  though 
even  he  gives  far  less  space  to  it  than  most  Jewish 
writers  of  his  time.  There  are  also  elements  in 
Paul's  eschatology  which  we  may  call  Jewish  rather 
than  Christian,  since  they  are  based  neither  upon  the 
Old  Testament  nor  upon  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  Thus, 
for  example,  by  the  side  of  the  Christian  teaching 
that  the  believer  at  death  departs  to  be  at  home  with 
Christ,1  in  a  body  conformed  to  the  glorious  body  of 
Christ,2  we  find  passages  which  speak  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body,  which  are  in  form  at  least 
materialistic.3  Likewise  there  are  features  in  his  rep- 
resentation of  the  parousia  which  have  parallels  in 
the  Jewish  writings  rather  than  in  the  Christian.4 
Yet  these  Jewish  and  rabbinic  elements  in  Paul's 
writings  are  exceptional  and  incidental,  and  we  should 
be  surprised,  not  at  their  presence,  but  rather  that 
they  are  not  far  more  numerous. 

1  Phil.  i.  23;  2  Cor.  v.  8.  8  1  Thess.  iv.  16,  17. 

2  Phil.  iii.  21.  *  I  Thess.  iv.  15-17;  2  Thess.  i.  5-10. 


CHAPTER   III 

Paul  as  Inquisitor  and  Persecutor 

i.    Return  to  Tarsus. 

It  is  probable  that  Paul  returned  to  Tarsus  and 
remained  there  some  time  prior  to  his  appearance  in 
the  Book  of  Acts  at  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen.  He 
would  naturally  return  to  his  native  city  to  learn  his 
trade.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  could  have  found 
opportunity  in  Jerusalem  to  learn  it,  for  his  trade 
was  that  of  weaving  goat's  hair,  and  this  was  a  Cili-. 
cian  industry.1  Then  it  is  altogether  improbable  that 
he  was  in  Jerusalem  during  the  public  ministry  of 
Jesus ;  for  had  he  been,  he  would  certainly  have  seen 
the  prophet  over  whom  the  religious  authorities  were 
so  highly  excited,  and  who  was  reported  to  have 
wrought  such  extraordinary  miracles ;  and  if  he  had 
seen  Jesus,  we  should  expect  some  sort  of  allusion 
to  that  fact  in  his  writings.  But  he  nowhere  inti- 
mates that  he  saw  Jesus  until  he  saw  Him  on  the 
way  to   Damascus.2     Yet,   while  it   is   probable   that 

1  Schurer,  II.  39. 

2  2  Cor.  v.  16  refers  to  a  false  judgment  of  Jesus,  which  Paul  had  for- 
merly held. 

19 


/ 


20  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

Paul  returned  to  Tarsus,  and  spent  considerable  time 
there  before  he  began  his  career  as  a  persecutor  of 
the  Church,  it  is  not  possible  to  fix  the  limits  of  that 
sojourn.  If  Paul  followed  the  custom  of  marrying 
early,  he  may  have  returned  to  Tarsus  and  have 
married  when  he  was  eighteen  or  twenty  years  old. 
It  is  not,  however,  quite  certain  that  he  married  at 
all.  The  view  that  he  did  is  favored,  first,  by  the 
fact  that  the  Jews  laid  great  stress  on  marriage. 
They  did  not  sympathize  with  celibacy.  This  feature 
of  the  teaching  of  the  Essenes  was  foreign  to  genu- 
ine Judaism.1  The  rabbis,  moreover,  were  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule  that  the  Jews  married  and  married 
young,  and  hence  the  presumption  is  that  Paul  mar-/ 
ried.  It  is  sometimes  supposed  that  the  words  of 
Paul  in  i  Cor.  vii.  7,  8  imply  that  he  had  not  mar- 
ried. "  I  would  that  all  men  were  even  as  I  my- 
self." "  I  say  to  the  unmarried  and  to  widows,  It  is 
good  for  them  if  they  abide  even  as  I."  It  seems  i 
plain  that  when  Paul  wrote  these  words  he  had  no 
wife,2  but  they  do  not  require  us  to  suppose  that 
he  had  never  been  married. 

Again,  Paul's  exalted  conception  of  the  married 
state  is  rather  favorable  than  otherwise  to  the  view 
that  he  had  been  married.  He  glorifies  the  relation 
of  husband  and   wife   by   comparing  it  with  the  rela- 

1  Schiirer,  II.  487.  2  Comp.  I  Cor.  ix.  4-6. 


PAUL   AS   INQUISITOR   AND   PERSECUTOR  21 

tion  between  Christ  and  the  Church.1  He  could  not 
have  used  this  language  if,  as  Pfleiderer  holds,2  he 
had  allowed  marriage  only  as  an  evil  which  was 
necessary  for  the  prevention  of  unchastity,  and  had 
believed  that  the  unmarried  state  was  holier  than 
the  married.  The  seventh  chapter  of  i  Corinthians 
does  not  support  this  view  of  Pfleiderer,  for  it  con- 
siders marriage  simply  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
speedy  coming  of  the  Lord. 

But  since  the  marriage  of  Paul  is  uncertain,  no  evi- 
dence can  be  derived  from  this  source  that  bears 
upon  the  time  of  his  return  from  Jerusalem  to 
Tarsus.  This  must  be  left  undetermined,  as  also 
the  length  of  the  sojourn  in  Tarsus.  This,  however, 
appears  certain,  that  at  the  time  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian persecution  Paul  was  permanently  located  in 
Jerusalem,  for  his  language  implies  that  he  was  then 
a  member  of  the  sanhedrin,3  and  to  hold  this  office 
he  must  of  necessity  reside  in  or  near  Jerusalem. 
As  election  to  the  sanhedrin  seems  to  have  been  for 
life,4  Paul  must  have  counted  himself  a  resident  of 
Jerusalem  when  he  accepted  the  office. 

2.    Stephen  and  the  Larger   View  of  Christianity. 
Before  Stephen  arose,  the   opposition   to  Christian- 
ity had   come   largely  from   the  Sadducees,5  and    had 

1  Eph.  v.  22,  23.  2  Das  Urchristenthum,  pp.  280,  281. 

8  Acts  xxvi.  10.  *  Schurer,  II.  152.  5  Acts  iv.  I;  v.  17. 


22  THE   STUDENT'S    LIFE  OF   PAUL 

not  gone  further  than  imprisonment.  The  reason  of 
this  lay  in  the  fact  that  Christian  believers  were 
loyal  to  the  temple,  and  so  gave  no  offence  to  the 
Pharisees.  But  Stephen  was  not  content  to  have  the 
new  faith  made  as  narrow  as  the  old.  He  seems  to 
have  held  that  Jesus  taught  a  spiritual  worship,  and 
that  legal  rites  were  not  necessary  to  salvation.  In 
so  doing  he  aroused  the  same  hatred  on  the  part  of 
the  Pharisees  which  had  caused  the  death  of  Jesus. 
Stephen  himself  was  probably  a  Hellenist,1  and  this 
explains  why  the  opposition  to  him  came  from  Jews 
of  the  Diaspora,  from  the  Libertines,  the  Cyrenians, 
the  Alexandrians,  and  from  Jews  of  Cilicia  and 
Asia.2  Doubtless  it  was  among  these  that  he  had 
been  active. 

It  was  charged  that  Stephen  spoke  blasphemous 
words  against  Moses  and  God,  and  said  that  Jesus 
would  destroy  the  temple  and  change  the  customs  of 
Moses.3  It  is  not  possible  to  determine  just  what 
the  position  of  Stephen  had  been  with  reference  to 
the  law  and  the  temple,4  but  we  may  suppose  that, 
in  line  with  the  thought  of  Jesus,5  he  had  spoken 
of  a  destruction  of  the  temple,  and  had  said  that 
the  customs  of  Moses  were  not  essential  to  salvation. 
In    his    defence    before    the    council    one    prominent 

1  Acts  vi.  1-3.  2  Acts  vi.  9.  8  Acts  vi.  II,  14. 

*  Acts  vi.  13.  G  Mark  xiii.  2;    Matt.  v.  17. 


PAUL  AS   INQUISITOR  AND   PERSECUTOR  23 

thought  is  that  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  past 
had  not  been  conditioned  on  the  observance  of  legal 
rites.1  From  this  we  can  infer  that  his  position  was 
one  of  spiritual  freedom,  and  that  he  virtually  claimed 
for  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  that  it  had  made  the  law 
obsolete.  Thus  the  point  at  issue  between  Stephen 
and  his  opponents  was  indeed  vital  to  the  existence 
of  the  Jewish  system.  Either  Stephen  and  his  posi- 
tion must  be  overcome,  or  Pharisaism  would  be  under- 
mined and  the  temple  would  ultimately  perish. 

Such  was  the  man  and  such  the  position  which 
called  out  the  strength  of  Paul.  It  is  more  than 
likely  that  Paul  was  one  of  those  who  had  disputed 
with  Stephen,  for  he  doubtless  belonged  to  the  syna- 
gogue of  the  Cilicians,  and  this  synagogue,  we  are 
told,  was  involved  in  the  controversy.2  Paul  himself 
tells  us  that  he  consented  to  Stephen's  murder,3 
which  is  apparent  also  from  Luke's  narrative,  for  this 
says  that  Paul  held  the  garments  of  the  witnesses 
while  they  hurled  the  first  stones  at  the  martyr.4 

The  death  of  Stephen,  in  which  Paul  participated, 
was  a  death  by  mob-violence.  The  Jews  had  not  the 
power  of  death  at  that  time.5  They  must  have  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  government  in  order  to  in- 
flict the  death  penalty,  and   yet   in  the   case   of   Ste- 

1  Acts  vii.  2,  30.  2  Acts  vi.  9.  8  Acts  xxii.  20. 

4  Acts  vii.  58;  viii.  I.  5  John  xviii.  31. 


/ 


24  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

phen  the  narrative  appears  to  exclude  any  reference 
to  the  procurator.  Then,  according  to  the  humane 
law  of  the  Jews,  a  sentence  of  condemnation  could 
not  be  passed  until  the  next  day  after  the  trial ;  but 
they  condemned  and  executed  Stephen  on  the  same 
day  on  which  he  was  brought  before  them. 

3.    Persecutiori  by  Paul. 


V 


From  the  day  of  Stephen's  death  Paul  enteredA  / 
into  the  work  of  persecution  with  his  whole  soul.; 
It  was  a  matter  of  conscience  with  him,1  and  there- 
fore he  threw  himself  wholly  into  it.  From  all  the 
indications  of  Acts  and  of  the  epistles,  he  was  easily 
the  leader  of  the  opposition,  and  made  a  terrible 
record  in  his  bloody  work.  His  aim  was  radical  and 
comprehensive.  He  purposed  to  wipe  the  entire  sect  of 
Christians  out  of  existence.  He  had  the  sanhedrin  back 
of  him,  though  it  does  not  seem  likely  that  Gamaliel 
favored  his  bloody  plan.  If  he  did,  his  thought  must 
have  undergone  a  change  since  the  day  when  he 
secured  the  release  of  Peter  and  the  other  apostles.2 
The  sanhedrin,  as  a  whole,  plainly  supported  Paul,3 
and  the  procurator  seems  not  to  have  cared  to  exer- 
cise his  veto  power  to  save  the  lives  of  believers  in 
Jesus. 

In    proceeding    against   the    disciples,    Paul    sought^/ 

1  Acts  xxvi.  9.  2  Acts  v.  34-40.  8  Acts  ix.  2;  xxii.  5;  xxvi.  10. 


PAUL  AS  INQUISITOR  AND   PERSECUTOR  25 

first  to  make  them  blaspheme,  that  is,  blaspheme 
Jesus,  and  renounce  their  loyalty  to  Him  ;  and  if  he 
failed  in  this,  he  caused  them  to  be  put  to  death. 
Many  persons  were  imprisoned,  and  many  put  to 
death,  both  men  and  women.1  Paul  went  throughout 
Judea,2  and  even  outside  of  Palestine.  He  told 
Agrippa  that  he  persecuted  Christians  unto  foreign 
cities,  which  implies  that  he  made  journeys  to  other 
foreign  cities  besides  Damascus.3  Of  these  journeys 
we  have  no  knowledge.  An  illustration  of  how  widely 
Paul  was  known  and  feared  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
before  he  went  to  Damascus,  Ananias,  who  lived  in 
that  city,  had  heard  from  many  what  evil  Paul  had 
done  in  Jerusalem.4 

How  long  Paul  was  occupied  in  this  work  of  per- 
secution can  only  be  conjectured.  Some  months  at 
least  would  be  required  for  a  thorough  search  after 
believers  in  Jerusalem  and  Judea,  and  the  persecu- 
tions to  foreign  cities  would,  at  the  lowest  estimate 
of  the  extent  of  this  vague  expression,  require  some 
months. 

The  success  of  Paul  in  this  work  of  persecution- 
was  manifestly  very  great.  Luke  speaks  of  it  as  a 
"great  persecution,"  a  "ravaging  of  the  Church," 
which  left  no  disciple  in  Jerusalem  save  the  apostles,5 

1  Acts  xxvi.  10.  2  Gal.  i.  22,  23.  8  Acts  xxvi.  II. 

4  Acts  ix.  13,  21.  6  Acts  viii.  I,  3. 


26  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

who  may  have  been  in  hiding,  and  with  this  testi- 
mony agree  the  statements  of  Paul's  letters.  He 
says  that  he  persecuted  the  Church  beyond  measure, 
and  that  he  made  havoc  of  the  faith}  If  the  infant 
Church  could  have  been  annihilated  by  man,  it  would 
have  been  accomplished  by  the  consuming  zeal  and 
rigor  and  perseverance  of  Paul. 

1  Gal.  i.  23;   1  Cor.  xv.  9;  Phil.  iii.  6. 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Vision  of  Jesus  and  the  Changed  Life 

i.    The  Testimony  of  the  Epistles. 

Two  facts  that  are  indelibly  engraven  upon  the  his- 
tory of  the  first  century  are,  first,  that  Saul  of  Tarsus 
persecuted  the  early  Church,  and,  second,  that  he  after- 
ward became  a  most  zealous  and  successful  herald  of 
the  Gospel.  How  he  was  transformed  is  more,  or  less 
disputed,  but  it  is  incidental ;  that  he  was  transformed 
is  indisputable,  and  this  is  the  essential  fact.  We 
have  more  distinct  and  detailed  accounts  of  the  event 
than  are  to  be  found  regarding  the  conversion  of  any 
other  character  in  Scripture.  There  are  three  of 
these  accounts  in  Acts,  one  by  the  author1  and  two 
which  purport  to  be  by  Paul  himself.2  There  is  one 
account  in  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians,3  and  there  are 
two  distinct  references  to  the  event  in  the  first  epistle 
to  the  Corinthians.4  We  will  first  consider  the  testi- 
mony of  the  epistles,  the  unquestioned  references  of 
Paul    himself.      According    to   Galatians,    Paul's   con- 

1  Acts  ix.  1-19.  2  Acts  xxii.  6-16;  xxvi.  12-18. 

8  Gal.  i.  n-17.  *  I  Cor.  ix.  I;  xv.  8.     Comp.  2  Cor.  iv.  6. 

27 


/ 


28  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

version  occurred  in  or  near  Damascus,1  and  had  been 
immediately  preceded  by  zealous  persecution  of  the 
Church.2  The  occasion  of  the  change  was  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God  in  him.3  The  change  was 
a  sudden  one.  Paul  departed  immediately  into  Ara- 
bia ; 4  his  career  as  a  persecutor  was  instantly  aban- 
doned. The  heart  of  the  event,  according  to  this 
narrative,  was  a  spiritual  apprehension  of  the  Son  of 
God.  Christ  was  revealed  in  him.  Here  is  no  sug- 
gestion of  an  external  phenomenon  in  connection  with 
his  conversion,  and  no  suggestion  of  a  miracle,  save 
as  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  any  sin- 
ful heart,  bringing  it  into  the  light  and  love  of  God, 
is  miraculous.  But  it  must  not  be  at  once  inferred 
that  because  this  narrative  mentions  nothing  external 
in  connection  with  Paul's  conversion,  therefore  there 
was  nothing  of  the  sort.  We  have  no  right  to  assume 
that  this  is  a  complete  account  of  his  conversion, 
which  is  manifestly  improbable.  But  we  have  a  right 
to  hold  that  what  Paul  specializes  here  is  central  and 
fundamental ;  and  we  have  a  right  to  test  by  this 
any  statements  which  we  find  in  other  sources.  How- 
ever, we  cannot  reject  what  we  find  elsewhere,  simply 
because  it  is  not  in  this  account  of  Paul.  The  refer- 
ence in  i  Cor.  ix.  i  is  plainly  to  the  same  event  of 
which  Gal.  i.  16  speaks.  For  Paul  derives  his  apostle- 
*GaL  i.  17.        2  Gal.  i.  13-15.         *  Gal.  i.  15,  16.         *  Gal.  i.  16,  17. 


THE  VISION  OF  JESUS  29 

ship  from  the  fact  that  he  has  seen  Jesus  the  Lord. 
To  have  seen  Him,  however,  with  the  eyes  of  flesh, 
would  manifestly  not  establish  a  claim  to  apostleship. 
Hence  the  vision  of  which  he  speaks  must  of  neces- 
sity have  been  inward,  and  this  passage  therefore  adds 
nothing  to  the  thought  of  Gal.  i.  16,  a  revelation  of 
the  Son  of  God  in  him.  In  1  Cor.  xv.  4-8  Paul  is 
speaking  of  the  appearances  of  the  risen  Jesus  which 
confirmed  the  Scripture  teaching  that  He  should  rise. 
After  appearing  to  Cephas,  to  the  twelve,  to  more 
than  five  hundred  brethren,  to  James,  and  to  all  the 
apostles,  He  appeared  to  Paul.  The  following  verse 
suggests  that  when  Jesus  appeared  to  Paul  he  was 
a  persecutor  of  the  Church.  This  fact  is  evidence 
that  the  vision  here  mentioned  is  to  be  identified 
with  that  of  1  Cor.  ix.  1  and  Gal.  i.  16.  Moreover, 
this  identification  is  necessary  because  the  appear- 
ance of  Jesus  of  which  Paul  here  speaks  was  to  him 
the  signal  evidence  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  as 
His  appearance  to  the  other  apostles  convinced  them 
that  He  had  risen,  and  certainly  after  the  event  of 
Gal.  i.  16  Paul  never  again  needed  proof  that  Jesus 
had  risen  from  the  grave.  Hence  the  appearance  of 
Jesus  in  1  Cor.  xv.  8  is  none  other  than  the  revela- 
tion of  Him  which  is  mentioned  in  Galatians.  It  may 
be  added  that  the  Greek  word  which  is  translated 
appeared  {wfydrj),   though  not   employed   in   any  other 


30  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

undisputed  letter  of  Paul,  is  commonly  used  of  spiritual 
appearances.1 

2.   The  Testimony  of  Acts. 

Between  the  three  accounts  of  Paul's  conversion 
which  we  have  in  Acts,  the  differences  both  small 
and  great  are  very  numerous ;  but  it  is  to  be  espe- 
cially noticed  that  the  differences  between  the  two 
accounts  which  are  attributed  to  Paul  are  as  great  as 
the  differences  between  these  two  and  that  of  Luke. 
Thus,  for  example,  the  account  of  the  twenty-sixth 
chapter  says  nothing  about  Ananias,  and  represents 
the  commission  of  Jesus  as  being  given  to  Paul  in 
the  hour  of  his  conversion,  while  in  the  twenty-second 
chapter  the  commission  is  given  by  Ananias  in  Damas- 
cus, and  not  outside  the  city  where  the  light  shone 
upon  Paul. 

There  are  some  details  in  the  accounts  attributed 
to  Paul  which  accord  well  with  the  representation  that 
in  these  passages  we  hear  one  speaking  who  was  pres- 
ent and  who  participated  in  the  events  that  are  de- 
scribed. Thus  in  these  accounts  we  are  informed  that 
it  was  about  noon  when  Paul  was  arrested  by  the 
heavenly  light ; 2  that  this  light  was  great  above  the 
brightness   of    the   sun ; 3  that   it   shone   round   about 

1  Comp.  Matt.  xvii.  3;   Luke  i.  II;  Acts  vii.  2;  xvi.  9. 

2  Acts  xxii.  6;  xxvi.  13.  8  Acts  xxii.  6;  xxvi.  13. 


THE  VISION  OF  JESUS  3 1 

them  all ; 1  that  the  one  who  spoke  to  Paul  said,  "  I 
am  Jesus  of  Nazaretli ;  " 2  that  all  fell  to  the  earth;3 
and  that  Jesus  said  to  Paul,  "  It  is  hard  for  thee  to 
kick  against  the  goad."4  These  words  can  hardly  be 
regarded  as  originating  with  the  author  of  the  Acts. 
To  these  may  be  added  the  summons  of  Ananias, 
"  Arise,  and  be  baptized,  and  wash  away  thy  sins, 
calling  on  His  name." 5 

Again,  it  may  be  said  that  the  great  differences  in 
the  accounts  which  are  attributed  to  Paul  are  as  easily 
explicable  on  the  theory  that  Luke  followed  good 
sources  and  that  these  differences  are  traceable  to 
Paul  himself  as  they  are  when  we  hold  that  the 
accounts  were  freely  invented  by  the  author.  For 
plainly  we  have  no  right  to  demand  that  Paul,  speak- 
ing twenty-five  years  after  his  conversion,  and  having 
regard  to  the  central  facts  of  that  great  hour,  would 
describe  the  event  in  the  same  terms  and  mention 
the  same  incidents  in  every  case ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  the  two  accounts  were  free  inventions  of  the 
author  of  Acts,6  then  it  is  altogether  unlikely  that  he 
would  represent  the  commission  as  coming  to  Paul  in 
one  case  from  Jesus  Himself  outside  the  city,  and  in 
the  other  case  as  coming  from  Ananias  in  the  city. 

1  Acts  xxvi.  13.  2  Acts  xxii.  8.  3  Acts  xxvi.  14. 

*  Acts  xxvi.  14.  5  Acts  xxii.  16. 

6  See,  for  example,  Julicher,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T.,  p.  267. 


32  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

When  we  compare  these  two  accounts  with  Luke's, 
the  principal  differences  noted  are  that  Luke  alone 
speaks  of  a  three  days'  blindness  and  a  three  days' 
fast  of  Paul ; 1  that  he  alone  speaks  of  a  vision  to 
Ananias  and  another  to  Paul ; 2  that  he  alone  makes 
it  part  of  the  purpose  of  Ananias's  visit  that  Paul 
might  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit;3  and  that  he 
alone  speaks  of  scales  that  fell  from  Paul's  eyes  as  he 
recovered  sight.4  Of  less  real  significance  are  the  two 
apparent  discrepancies  between  Luke's  account  of  the 
external  phenomena  and  the  account  which  is  attrib- 
uted to  Paul.  Luke  says  that  the  men  stood  while  the 
voice  spake,5  but  in  Paul's  account  it  is  said  that  all 
fell  to  the  ground.6  Luke  also  says  that  the  men 
with  Paul  heard  the  voice,7  while  in  the  later  narrative 
it  is  said  that  they  heard  not  the  voice  of  Him  who 
spake  to  Paul.8  These  two  details,  as  also  the  fact 
that  in  chapter  twenty-two  the  commission  comes  to 
Paul  from  the  lips  of  Ananias  in  Damascus,  while  in 
chapter  twenty-six  it  comes  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  out- 
side of  Damascus,  are  plainly  inconsistent  with  absolute 
historicity,  but  they  do  not  militate  against  the  gen- 
eral trustworthiness  of  the  narrative. 

Let  us  come  now  to  the  agreements  of  the  narratives 

1  Acts  ix.  9.  4  Acts  ix.  18.  7  Acts  ix.  7. 

2  Acts  ix.  10-12.  6  Acts  ix.  7.  8  Acts  xxii.  9. 
8  Acts  ix.  17.                            6  Acts  xxvi.  14. 


THE  VISION  OF  JESUS  33 

in  Acts.  First,  they  agree  that  there  was  some  sort 
of  external  phenomenon  connected  with  Paul's  con- 
version. His  eyes  were  blinded  and  his  companions 
saw  a  light.  It  is  perhaps  uncertain  whether  for  the 
companions  of  Paul  the  external  phenomenon  was 
anything  more  than  light.1  The  narratives  represent 
that  for  Paul  the  external  phenomenon  was  twofold : 
he  saw  a  light,  and  he  also  heard  certain  words. 

Second,  the  narratives  in  Acts  agree  in  the  repre- 
sentation that  Paul  saw,  with  his  physical  eyes,  nothing 
but  the  light.2  They  all  say  that  he  fell  to  the  ground 
when  the  great  light  shone  upon  him,  and  that  it 
was  while  he  lay  there  prostrate  that  he  heard  the 
voice.3  But  his  physical  eyes  were  blinded  by  the 
glory  of  the  light,4  and  therefore  they  beheld  nothing 
while  he  was  lying  upon  the  earth. 

Third,  the  narratives  in  Acts  agree  that  Paul  met 
Jesus  near  Damascus,  and  since  they  preclude  a 
physical  seeing  of  Him,  we  must  hold  that  they  de- 
sire to  represent  Paul  as  having  a  spiritual  vision  of 
Jesus.  Here  then,  in  that  which  is  manifestly  deepest 
in  these  narratives  in  Acts,  there  is  perfect  agree- 
ment with  the  representation  of  Paul  in  his  epistles. 

1  Acts  xxii.  9. 

2  Comp.  Weizsacker,  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  77.  For  the  old  view, 
see  Conybeare  and  Howson,  The  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  new  edi- 
tion, 1892,  p.  75. 

3  Acts  ix.  3,  4;  xxii.  7,  8;  xxvi.  14.  *  Acts  xxii.  II. 

D 


34  THE   STUDENT'S    LIFE  OF  PAUL 

The  Son  of  God  was  revealed  in  Him.1  What  he 
saw  was  a  heavenly  vision.2  It  is  this  agreement  in 
that  which  is  essential  which  is  of  real  importance. 
On  this  we  must  lay  the  stress.  The  prime  concep- 
tion which  the  epistles  and  Acts  alike  have  of  the 
event  by  Damascus  is  one  and  the  same.  Jesus  was 
revealed  to  the  spirit  of  Paul.  According  to  the 
accounts  in  Acts  this  revelation  was  introduced  by 
some  sort  of  physical  phenomenon,  natural  or  super- 
natural. The  fact  that  Paul  does  not  mention  this 
in  his  epistles  only  shows  that  he  regarded  it  as  of 
incidental  importance.  His  silence  is  not  a  proof  of 
the  unhistorical  character  of  the  narrative  in  Acts. 
The  assertion  of  this  narrative  that  the  spiritual  revela- 
tion to  Paul  was  introduced  by  some  sort  of  striking 
physical  phenomenon  contains  nothing  improbable. 
History  has  many  parallels.  It  frequently  comes  to 
pass  that  men,  arrested  by  some  striking  material 
event,  become  open-minded  to  spiritual  communica- 
tions. The  nature  of  the  physical  phenomenon, 
whether  in  Paul's  case  or  in  any  other,  is  a  matter 
of  relatively  slight  importance.  If  it  brings  a  vision/ 
of  Jesus,  that  is  enough. 

3.    Preparation  for  the    Vision. 

Processes  of  the  mind  are  often  difficult  to  follow, 
even  when  we   have  ample   details   of   the  outer  and 

1  Gal.  i.  16.  2  Acts  xxvi.  19. 


THE  VISION  OF  JESUS  35 

inner  life :  much  more  when,  as  in  Paul's  case,  we 
know  so  little  of  the  influences  which  affected  him 
before  his  conversion,  and  so  little  of  his  own  thoughts 
in  those  days.  That  there  was  something  in  his 
inner  life  which  led  up  to  the  event  by  Damascus, 
it  is  rational  to  believe,  and  to  some  minds,  at  least, 
a  necessity.  Nor  is  there  anything  in  Paul's  epistles 
which  is  unfavorable  to  this  hypothesis.  He  says  in- 
deed that  he  received  his  apostleship  directly  through 
Jesus  Christ,1  and  he  says  that  the  hour  of  his  con- 
version came  when  it  was  the  good  pleasure  of  God 
to  reveal  His  Son  in  him ; 2  but  these  statements  by 
no  means  imply  that  the  great  change  in  his  life 
came  without  preparation.  They  teach  that  he  was 
not  the  convert  of  any  man,  but  they  do  not  suggest 
that  his  conversion  had  no  roots  in  his  previous  life. 
That  which  can  be  said  with  any  positiveness 
regarding  a  preparation  for  Paul's  vision  is  negative 
in  character.  His  own  language  in  Galatians  pre- 
cludes the  possibility  that  he  had  received  Christian 
instruction,  and  the  representation  of  Acts  and  of 
the  epistles  that  Paul  was  zealously  persecuting 
the  Church  when  he  went  to  Damascus  is  evidence 
that  there  was  no  conscious  leaning  toward  Chris- 
tianity. That  some  words  of  Jesus  had  reached 
his  heart,  and  that  the  martyr  courage  of  Christians 

1  Gal.  Li.  2  Gal.  i.  16. 


36  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

had  touched  his  conscience l  is  perhaps  possible, 
but  of  course  cannot  be  proven.  As  far  as  we 
can  judge  from  the  words  of  Paul,  he  was  no  less 
conscientious  when  he  set  out  for  Damascus  than 
he  had  been  before,  and  his  zeal  in  that  project 
appeared  to  him  no  less  praiseworthy  than  his  zeal 
of   earlier   days.2 

Pneiderer3  starts  from  the  word  of  Acts  xxvi.  14, 
interpreting  the  "  goad "  to  mean  a  doubt  in  the 
soul  of  Paul,  whether  it  was  right  to  persecute  the 
Christians,  and  he  thinks  this  doubt  had  been 
caused  by  the  bearing  of  the  Christians  and  by 
the  words  which  Paul  had  heard  from  their  lips. 
But  it  is  not  certain  that  this  interpretation  of  the 
proverb  is  correct.  The  word  may  simply  mean 
that  Paul's  course  is  suicidal.  In  persecuting  Jesus 
he  is  wounding  himself.  Therefore  we  cannot  build 
upon  this  saying  with  much  confidence. 

There  is  more  of  suggestion  furnished  by  Paul 
in  that  passage  in  Romans  through  which  we  get 
a  glimpse  into  his  inmost  heart  as  it  was  in  the 
days  before  he  went  to  Damascus.4  Paul  is  here 
interpreting  past  experiences  in  the  light  of  his 
present  Christian  knowledge,  and  we  cannot  hold 
that   the   struggle   of    spirit   which    he   describes    had 

1  Jiilicher,  Einleitung,  p.  21.  8  Das  Urckrislenthwn,  pp.  36,  37. 

2  Acts  xxvi.  9;   Phil.  iii.  6.  4  Rom.  vii.  14-25. 


THE  VISION  OF  JESUS  37 

been  felt  by  him  at  the  time  so  keenly  as  he  now 
intimates,  when  he  sees  the  meaning  of  it  all  as 
he  had  not  done  before.  Yet  it  remains  true  that 
the  man  who  thus  portrays  his  old  Pharisaic  ex- 
perience must  have  felt,  at  times  at  least,  if  not 
constantly,  that  his  life  of  blameless  righteousness, 
as  men  judged  it,  and  as  he  himself  judged  it  by 
the  standards  of  Judaism,1  was,  after  all,  a  failure. 
He  must  have  felt,  at  least  in  moments  of  clearer 
moral  seeing,  that,  although  he  kept  all  the  re- 
quirements of  the  law  as  it  was  interpreted  by  the 
scribes,  he  was  in  bondage  to  sin  and  powerless  to 
deliver   himself. 

In  this  deep  fact  which  Paul  thus  uncovers  we 
may  see  a  real  preparation  for  the  experience  by 
Damascus.  His  inner  life  was  felt  to  be  incom- 
plete, and  he  was  not  wholly  satisfied  with  a  right- 
eousness of  works.  That  he  had  come  to  doubt 
whether  Jesus  was  really  a  false  Messiah,  as  he 
had  believed,  one  cannot  say ;  but  in  view  of  the 
seventh  chapter  of  Romans,  we  must  say  that  there 
were  moments  in  which  he  doubted  whether  he 
was  pleasing  God.  This  doubt  may  have  been 
nourished  in  one  way  and  another  by  what  he  had 
seen  of  the  Christians,  *and  by  what  he  had  heard 
from  them  when  he  entered  their  houses  as  a  per- 
1  Phil.  iii.  6. 


38  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

secutor,  and  when  he  had  sought  to  make  them 
blaspheme  the  name  that  was  most  dear  to  their 
hearts.  In  such  an  hour,  then,  when  he  was  con- 
scious of  the  contrast  between  his  blameless,  outward 
life  and  his  inner  bondage,  some  striking  physical 
phenomenon  was  used  of  God  to  open  fully  the  way 
for  a  revelation  of  Jesus  to  his  soul. 

4.    The  Commission. 

The  hour  of  Paul's  conversion  to  faith  in  the  risen 
Messiah  witnessed  also  the  creation  of  a  conviction 
in  his  soul  that  he  was  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
Gentiles.  In  his  letter  to  the  Galatians  Paul  repre- 
sents this  preaching  as  the  end  had  in  view  by  God 
when  He  revealed  His  Son  in  him.1  In  all  the  ac- 
counts of  his  conversion  in  Acts  this  thought  is  found, 
though  variously  expressed  and  coming  from  different 
persons.  In  after  years  Paul  associated  the  gift  of 
apostleship  to  the  Gentiles  with  the  gift  of  grace 
which  he  experienced  in  the  pardon  of  his  sins,2  and 
repeatedly  connected  this  Gentile  mission  with  his  first 
vision  of  Jesus.3  In  that  vision,  therefore,  and  in  the' 
experiences  of  that  hour  we  must  see  the  source  of 
Paul's  conviction  that  he  had  a  mission  from  Jesus  to 
the  Gentiles.  In  explaining  this  call  we  have  to  bear 
in   mind  two  facts  in  particular.     First,  Paul  himself 

1  Gal.  i.  16.  a  Rom.  i.  5.  3  1  Cor.  ix.  1;  xv.  8,  9,  etc. 


/ 


THE  VISION  OF  JESUS  39 

was  from  the  Gentile  world,  from  one  of  the  Greek 
cities  of  Asia,  and  his  father  had  lived  there  before 
him.  His  own  experience  had  given  him  a  much 
broader  horizon  than  the  original  apostles  had.  He 
knew  the  Gentile  world.  He  had  seen  its  elements 
of  good,  and  could  sympathize  with  it  as  the  twelve 
apostles  could  not.  Second,  and  more  important,  the 
vision  of  Jesus  had  come  to  him  when  he  was  bent 
upon  destroying  the  Church,  and  thus  the  pure  gra- 
cionsness  of  God  in  his  salvation  was  made  to  stand 
out  in  singular  prominence.  But  if  salvation  was  offered 
to  him  on  the  single  condition  that  he  would  accept  it, 
then  it  must  be  for  Gentiles l  no  less  than  for  Jews,  for 
both  alike  can  accept  what  is  offered  them.\  Faith  is 
equally  within  the  power  of  both.  And  thus  the 
manner  in  which  he  had  been  "  apprehended "  by 
Christ,  together  with  the  fact  that  his  youth  had  been 
spent  in  the  midst  of  the  Gentile  world,  makes  it 
natural  that  in  the  very  hour  of  his  conversion  to 
Jesus  he  felt  that  he  was  called  to  the  Gentiles. 

5.    The  First  Days  in  Damascus. 

Of  what  happened  to  Paul  in  Damascus  in  the  next 
days  after  his  conversion  he  tells  us  nothing  in  his 
epistles.  This  fact,  however,  should  not  be  regarded 
as  strange,  inasmuch  as  the  occurrences  of  those  days 

1  Rom.  i.  16;  iii.  30. 


40  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

were  in  any  case  quite  subordinate  in  importance  to 
the  event  which  took  place  outside  the  city,  and  Paul 
makes  but  brief  reference  even  to  that. 

It  is  probable  that  Paul  was  taken  to  the  house 
whither  he  had  expected  to  go  when  he  left  Jerusalem, 
and  that  may  have  been  the  house  of  a  certain  Judas 
in  Straight  Street.1  In  a  short  time  the  Jews  through- 
out the  city  must  have  heard  more  or  less  of  the 
strange  events  connected  with  Paul's  approach  to  Da- 
mascus. According  to  Acts  a  certain  Jewish  Christian, 
by  the  name  of  Ananias,  heard  of  Paul's  arrival  and 
of  his  state,  and  came  to  him  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus, 
to  sympathize  with  him  and  to  comfort  him.2  It  is 
said  that  he  restored  Paul's  sight,  and  it  seems  im- 
possible to  take  this  statement  in  a  figurative  sense,3 
as  meaning  that  through  Ananias  Paul  came  out  into 
the  light  of  the  Gospel,  for  Paul  certainly  teaches  that 
he  came  into  the  light  regarding  Jesus  before  he 
entered  the  city,  and  without  any  human  mediation. 
Therefore,  unless  this  detail  is  legendary  in  charac- 
ter, we  must  understand  the  passage  to  refer  to  the 
physical  sight  of  Paul.  If  the  language  of  Gal.  iv.  15 
implies  that  Paul  was  suffering  from  some  trouble 
with  his  eyes  when  he  was  in  Galatia,  which  is  the 
view    of   some,   and  if   weak  eyes  are  implied  in    the 

1  Acts  ix.  11.  2  Acts  ix.  10-17;   xxii.  12-16. 

8  So  Weizsiicker,  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  77. 


THE  VISION   OF  JESUS  4 1 

fact  that  Paul  did  not  write  his  letters  with  his  own 
hand,1  and  also  in  the  fact  that  his  salutation  was 
written  with  large  letters,2  then  this  fact  might  be 
regarded  as  a  consequence  of  the  blinding  which  he 
experienced  by  Damascus,  and  so  as  an  incidental  con- 
firmation of  the  narrative  in  Acts.  But  this  ground 
is  all  conjectural,  and  yields  nothing  positive  in  regard 
to  Paul's  eyes. 

Again,  it  is  intrinsically  probable  that  Paul,  since 
he  had  come  to  believe  in  Jesus,  was  baptized,  as  is 
affirmed  in  Acts,3  and  we  may  suppose  that  Ananias 
administered  this  rite.  We  may  well  believe  also  that 
Ananias,  when  he  baptized  Paul,  uttered  some  pro- 
phetic words  regarding  his  future ;  for  his  remarkable 
experiences,  now  publicly  known,  suggested  that  he 
might  have  a  remarkable  work  to  do.  The  only  refer- 
ence which  Paul  himself  is  said  to  have  made  to  the 
testimony  of  Ananias  represents  it  as  of  a  general 
character.4     It  does  not  specify  the  Gentile  mission. 

1  2Thess.  iii.  17.  3  Acts  ix.  18;  xxii.  16. 

2  Gal.  vi.  11.  4  Acts  xxii.  15. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Period  of  Obscurity 

i.   In  Arabia. 

Immediately  after  his  conversion  Paul  retired  into 
Arabia.1  The  region  which  bore  this  name  stretched 
from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  as  far  north 
as  Gadirtha  and  Palmyra.2  It  included  Arabia  Petraea 
with  Petra  as  its  capital,  Arabia  Felix  with  Saba  as  its 
capital,  and  Arabia  Nomadum,  the  great  eastern  desert 
which  extended  to  the  borders  of  Babylon.3  Since 
Paul  seems  to  have  retired  into  Arabia  in  order  that  he 
might  have  quiet  for  meditation,  and  since  when  he 
came  forth  out  of  his  retirement  he  came  to  Damascus,4 
it  is  to  be  held  that  he  went  into  the  neighboring  region 
of  Arabia  Petraea,  either  south  or  east  from  Damascus. 
In  Paul's  time  this  was  part  of  the  Nabataean  King- 
dom, and  was  ruled  by  Aretas  IV.,  who  gave  a  daughter 
in  marriage  to  Herod  Antipas.5 

Luke  says  nothing  of  this  Arabian  sojourn,  and  one 

1  Gal.  i.  16,  17. 

2  Strabo,  Miiller's  edition,  p.  653  ;  Ptolemy,  Porta's  edition,  p.  100. 
8  Winer,  Real-  Worterbuch. 

*  Gal.  i.  17.  6  Schurer,  I.  617,  618. 

42 


THE  PERIOD  OF  OBSCURITY  43 

may  read  his  narrative  and  doubt  whether  he  knew  of 
it.  He  says  that  Paul  was  certain  days  with  the  dis- 
ciples in  Damascus,  and  straightway  proclaimed  Jesus. 
Then  when  many  days  were  fulfilled,  the  Jews  plotted 
to  kill  him,  but  he  escaped,  and  came  to  Jerusalem.1 
The  natural  impression  of  the  whole  passage  is  that 
Paul  left  Damascus  for  Jerusalem  a  few  weeks,  or  at 
the  most  a  few  months,  after  his  conversion.2  That  this 
is  the  correct  impression  to  gain  from  the  passage 
(ix.  19-26)  seems  to  be  confirmed  when  the  author  in 
the  next  verse  represents  the  Christians  in  Jerusalem 
as  afraid  of  Paul,  not  believing  that  he  was  a  disciple. 
If  he  had  been  absent  three  years,3  and  no  one  had 
heard  of  his  persecuting  the  Church  during  these  years, 
that  would  have  been  a  strong  argument  why  the  dis- 
ciples should  believe  Paul  and  receive  him.  In  other 
words,  the  attitude  of  the  disciples  in  Jerusalem  seems 
to  imply  that  Luke  thought  of  Paul's  return  to  Jeru- 
salem as  occurring  in  far  less  than  three  years.  It  is 
difficult,  therefore,  to  escape  the  conclusion  that  the 
author  of  this  narrative  did  not  know  of  Paul's  sojourn 
in  Arabia,  a  fact  not  strange  since  Paul  himself  did  not 
regard  it  as  of  importance  to  others.  He  refers  to  it 
but  once,  and  then  simply  to  show  that  he  was  absent 

1  Acts  ix.  19,  20,  23,  26. 

2  Comp.  Wendt  in  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts,  7th  ed.,  pp.  229-232. 
8  Gal.  i.  18. 


44  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

from  Jerusalem.  If  the  author  of  Acts  knew  of  the 
sojourn  in  Arabia,  he  at  least  left  no  trace  of  his 
knowledge  on  the  narrative. 

The  length  of  the  Arabian  sojourn  may  be  learned 
approximately.  Paul  tells  us  that  it  was  three  years 
from  his  conversion  to  his  first  visit  to  Jerusalem.1 
This  time  was  all  spent  in  Arabia  and  Damascus,  and 
the  period  spent  in  Damascus  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  long.  We  know  from  Paul's  subsequent  life  that 
a  few  weeks  or  a  few  months  were  as  long  as  he 
could  labor  in  any  place  where  the  Jewish  influence 
was  as  strong  as  it  was  in  Damascus.  The  narrative 
in  Acts  also  represents  the  stay  of  Paul  in  Damascus 
as  comparatively  short.2  Weizsacker  thinks  the  stay 
in  Arabia  was  brief  in  comparison  with  that  in  Da- 
mascus,3 but  this  opinion  is  based  upon  the  untenable  4 
view  that  the  three  years  of  Gal.  i.  18  are  counted, 
not  from  Paul's  conversion,  but  from  his  return  to 
Damascus.  Therefore  we  are  to  think  of  the  so- 
journ in  Arabia  as  covering  the  greater  part  of  the 
three  years  between  Paul's  conversion  and  his  visit  to 
Jerusalem. 

2.   In  Damascus. 

Paul  returned  from  Arabia  to  Damascus,  and  began 
his  career  as  a  preacher  where  his  career  as  a  perse- 

1  Gal.  i.  1 8.         2  Acts  ix.  19,  23.         3  Das  Aposlolischc  Zcitaller,  p.  81. 
*  See  Gal.  ii.  1;   also  Lipsius,  Hand-Commentar  on  Galatians,  p.  18. 


THE   PERIOD   OF  OBSCURITY  45 

cutor  had  ended.  We  have  this  on  the  authority 
of  Paul  himself.  He  says 1  that  the  governor  under 
Aretas  sought  to  take  him  prisoner  in  Damascus,  and 
this  statement  presupposes  that  Paul  had  made  him- 
self obnoxious  to  the  Jews  by  his  preaching.  He  was 
persecuted  many  times  in  subsequent  years,  but  never 
for  any  other  reason  than  this,  if  we  except  the  ex- 
periences in  Philippi  and  Ephesus.  The  narrative  in 
Acts  is  therefore  in  harmony  with  the  epistles.  It 
says  that  Paul  preached  in  the  synagogue,  proved 
the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  with  great  power,  and  that 
because  of  a  plot  of  the  Jews  he  fled  for  his  life.2 
It  says  that  they  watched  the  gates,  which  of  course 
implies  what  is  explicitly  stated  by  Paul,  that  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  city  was  a  party  to  the  plot.  It  agrees 
with  Paul  also  in  regard  to  the  method  of  escape,3 
though  the  account  of  the  apostle  is  more  vivid,  as 
we  should  expect  it  would  be.  He  tells  us  that  it 
was  through  a  window  as  well  as  through  the  wall 
that  he  was  let  down,  which  suggests  that  there  was 
a  house  on  the  wall,  and  he  adds,  as  though  fully 
realizing  the  great  peril  in  which  he  had  been,  that 
he  escaped  their  hands.  There  is  nothing  improbable 
in  the  detail  of  Luke,  that  they  who  lowered  the 
basket  which  contained  Paul  were  his  disciples.  If 
he  had  preached  long  enough  to  arouse  the  Jews  and 

1  2  Cor.  xi.  32.  2  Acts  ix.  23-25.  3  Acts  ix.  25;   2  Cor.  xi.  ^. 


46  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

the   governor    against    him,    it   is   natural   to   suppose 
that  he  had  won  some  disciples. 

3.    From  Damascus  to  Jerusalem. 

The  sources  agree  that  when  Paul  fled  from  Damas- 
cus he  went  to  Jerusalem,  but  regarding  the  events 
which  fell  in  this  stay  in  Jerusalem  they  seem  to  be 
at  variance.  In  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians,1  in  a 
passage  which  deals  with  the  independence  of  Paul's 
apostleship,  he  tells  us  that  he  went  to  Jerusalem  to 
visit  Cephas,  that  he  tarried  with  him  fifteen  days, 
and  that  he  saw  no  other  apostle,  except  James,  the 
brother  of  Jesus.  Then  he  came  to  the  regions  of 
Syria  and  Cilicia,  and  at  that  time  he  was  still  un- 
known by  face  to  the  Christian  communities  of  Judea. 
Luke's  account  diverges  from  this  in  a  striking  man- 
ner. Thus  he  says  that  Barnabas  took  Paul  to  the 
apostles?  as  though  at  least  the  greater  part  of  the 
twelve  were  meant.  Then  he  represents  Paul  as 
preaching  boldly  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  dis- 
puting with  the  Hellenists  with  such  success  that 
they  formed  a  plot  to  kill  him.3  In  like  manner  the 
address  from  the  castle-stairs  implies  that  Paul  had 
preached  openly  in  Jerusalem  on  his  return  from 
Damascus,  for  in  a  trance  which  Paul  experienced  in 
the  temple  the  Lord  told  him  to  depart  quickly  from 

1  Gal.  i.  18-24.  2  Acts  ix.  27.  3  Acts  ix.  28,  29. 


THE   PERIOD   OF  OBSCURITY  47 

Jerusalem  because  the  Jews  would  not  receive  his 
testimony.1  This  vision  plainly  implies  that  he  had 
been  active  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  In  the  address 
before  Agrippa  Paul  is  represented  as  saying  ex- 
plicitly that  he  preached  in  Jerusalem  after  preach- 
ing in  Damascus.2  Thus  the  two  accounts  seem  to 
be  mutually  exclusive,  and  some  scholars,3  holding 
this  to  be  the  case,  reject  Luke's  account  as  un- 
historical.  It  becomes  necessary,  therefore,  to  look  at 
the  accounts  more  closely.  It  must  be  noticed,  in 
the  first  place,  that  the  account  of  Luke  has  a  differ- 
ent aim  than  has  the  narrative  in  Galatians.  Paul 
is  showing  his  independence  of  those  who  were 
apostles  before  him.4  Luke  has  no  such  specific  end 
in  view.  His  aim  is  rather  to  give  an  outline  of 
Paul's  career.  Paul  says  that  he  saw  Peter  and 
James,  but  none  other  of  the  apostles.  His  purpose 
called  for  no  further  statement.  Yet,  plainly,  it  is 
not  inconsistent  with  this,  that  Paul  met  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem.  He  is  not  seeking 
to  show  his  isolation  from  all  believers,  but  his  inde- 
pendence as  related  to  the  original  apostles.  He 
might  mingle  with  common  believers  without  men- 
tioning  it   in   the   letter   to   the   Galatians,    for   it   did 

1  Acts  xxii.  18.  2  Acts  xxvi.  20. 

3  So,  among  others,  Weizsacker  and  McGiffert. 
*  Gal.  i.  17. 


48  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

not  occur  to  any  one  to  say  that  he  had  received 
his  apostleship  from  them. 

Again,  Paul  says  in  Galatians  that  when  he  went 
into  Syria  and  Cilicia  he  was  unknown  by  face  to 
the  churches  in  Judea,  while  Luke  represents  him 
as  preaching  openly  in  Jerusalem.  Of  course,  the 
church  in  Jerusalem  was  the  chief  church  in  Judea, 
and  if  he  was  known  to  that  by  face,  he  could  hardly 
say  that  he  was  unknown  to  the  churches  of  Judea. 
But  this  apparent  conflict  is  modified  by  the  fact  that, 
according  to  Luke,  Paul's  activity  in  Jerusalem  was 
among  the  Hellenists}  Who  can  say  that  in  a  great 
city  like  Jerusalem  Paul  might  not  labor  two  weeks 
among  the  unbelieving  Hellenists,  and  not  be  known 
by  face  to  the  Jerusalem  church  ?  That  possibility  is 
so  obvious  that  we  need  not  stay  to  discuss  it. 

Now  it  must  be  conceded,  in  view  of  Paul's  spirit 
and  practice,  that  he  was  likely  to  preach  in  Jerusalem, 
as  he  had  recently  done  in  Damascus.  Nor  would 
his  preaching  be  at  variance  with  his  statement  in 
Galatians,  that  he  saw  none  of  the  apostles  save  Peter 
and  James.  His  preaching  simply  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  point  which  he  was  there  considering,  and  it 
would  have  been  entirely  irrelevant  to  have  mentioned 
it.  I  am  constrained  therefore  to  hold  that  when  we 
duly  consider  the  aim  of  the  respective  accounts,  and 

1  Acts  ix.  29. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  OBSCURITY  49 

when  we  consider  that  Paul's  activity  was  among  the 
Hellenists,  we  cannot  admit  that  Luke's  account  is  in 
its  main  features  unhistorical.  His  statement  that 
Barnabas  brought  Paul  to  the  apostles,  looked  at  in 
the  light  of  Gal.  i.  19,  is  misleading,  if  not  absolutely 
wrong,  and,  as  we  have  already  seen,  he  appears  to 
put  this  visit  to  Jerusalem  much  too  early;  but  his 
statements  that  Paul  saw  some  of  the  disciples  in 
Jerusalem,  and  that  he  preached  to  the  Hellenists, 
should  not  be  brought  into  conflict  with  the  teaching 
of  Galatians,  that  he  saw  none  of  the  apostles  but 
Peter  and  James,  and  that  when  he  departed  from 
Jerusalem  he  was  unknown  to  the  churches  of  Judea 
by  face. 

According  to  the  address  from  the  castle-stairs  Paul 
had  a  notable  vision  in  the  temple  during  this  visit 
of  fifteen  days.1  He  saw  Jesus,  who  told  him  to  de- 
part quickly  from  Jerusalem  because  the  Jews  would 
not  receive  his  testimony.  Paul  was  unwilling  to 
leave,  and  urged  in  favor  of  his  staying  the  fact  that 
he  was  known  as  a  persecutor  of  the  believers.  This 
appeared  to  him  a  reason  why  he  should  labor  here. 
His  testimony,  as  he  thought,  would  have  special 
weight.  But  the  Lord  refused  the  request,  and  told 
Paul  to  depart  to  the  Gentiles.  Ramsay2  puts  this 
vision  of  Acts  xxii.   17-21  at  the  time  of   Paul's  visit 

1  Acts  xxii.  17-21.  a  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  pp.  61-64. 

E 


50  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

to  Jerusalem  recorded  in  chapter  xi.  30,  which  belongs 
in  the  year  44.  His  argument  consists  of  the  follow- 
ing items :  first,  Luke  gives  a  plot  of  the  Jews  as  the 
reason  why  Paul  left  Jerusalem  at  the  first  visit  after 
his  conversion,1  while  Paul  gives  a  revelation  of  Jesus 
as  the  reason  why  he  departs ; 2  second,  the  mission 
of  Paul  to  the  Gentiles3  does  not  suit  his  first  visit 
to  Jerusalem,  for  after  that  he  spent  many  years  in 
work  within  the  circle  of  the  synagogue  and  its  influ- 
ence before  he  went  to  the  Gentiles ;  and,  third,  the 
necessity  of  a  revelation  to  Paul  suits  the  second  visit 
but  not  the  first.  He  thinks  that  Paul  was  tempted 
to  remain  in  Jerusalem  by  the  favorable  opportunity 
for  his  message,  and  that,  in  consequence,  it  required 
a  vision  to  overcome  his  desire. 

Replying  to  these  points  in  order,  we  may  say  that 
there  is  no  inconsistency  in  supposing  two  reasons  for 
Paul's  departure  from  Jerusalem  :  a  plot  and  a  revela- 
tion. And  this  is  the  more  manifest  since  the  narra- 
tive of  the  revelation  in  Acts  xxii.  plainly  implies 
bitter  opposition  to  Paul,  such  as  in  Acts  ix.  produced 
the  plot  to  kill  him.  Again,  as  to  the  point  that  it 
was  many  years  after  Paul's  first  visit  to  Jerusalem 
before  he  went  on  a  mission  to  the  Gentiles,  two 
things  are  to  be  said :  first,  there  is  no  proof  what- 
ever that  during  the  fourteen  years  spent  in  Syria 
1  Acts  ix.  29.  2  Acts  xxii.  17.  8  Acts  xxii.  21* 


THE  PERIOD  OF  OBSCURITY  5 1 

and  Cilicia1  Paul  labored  among  Jews  and  proselytes 
only ;  and,  second,  if  Paul  even  at  his  conversion  was 
called  by  Jesus  to  labor  among  the  Gentiles,  which 
cannot  be  doubted,2  then  surely  the  long  interval 
between  the  commission  of  Acts  xxii.  and  the  first 
recorded  Gentile  mission  of  Paul  cannot  be  urged 
against  the  early  dating  of  that  commission. 

The  third  argument  of  Ramsay  seems  to  have  even 
less  appearance  of  weight.  For  the  "  favorable  op- 
portunity "  to  preach,  of  which  he  speaks,  is  a  pure 
assumption.  Paul  came  from  Antioch  with  an  offer- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  famine  in  Judea,  but  there  is 
no  evidence  that  this  opened  a  door  for  his  testimony 
among  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem.  At  a  later  day  Paul 
came  to  Jerusalem  again  with  an  offering,  a  much 
larger  one  than  was  brought  from  Antioch,  but  it  did 
not  create  a  favorable  opportunity  for  his  message. 
It  did  not  prevent  his  imprisonment,  or  the  attempts 
to  put  him  to  death. 

We  must  hold,  therefore,  that  the  trance  of  Acts 
xxii.  17  occurred  at  the  first  visit  of  Paul  in  Jeru- 
salem after  his  conversion. 

One  point  remains  to  be  considered.  In  the  ad- 
dress before  Agrippa  Paul  is  represented  as  saying, 
that  after  preaching  in  Damascus  he  preached  in  Jeru- 

1  Gal.  ii.  1.  This  period  also  covers  the  first  missionary  tour  from 
Antioch.  2  Gal.  i.  16. 


52  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

salem  and  throughout  all  the  country  of  Judea}  But 
this  preaching  could  not  have  taken  place  in  connec- 
tion with  the  first  visit  in  Jerusalem,  for  Paul  says 
that  when  he  came  into  the  regions  of  Syria  and 
Cilicia  he  was  unknown  by  face  to  the  churches  of 
Judea.2  During  the  next  fourteen  years  Paul  did  not 
visit  Judea,3  and  after  that,  by  agreement  with  Cephas, 
James,  and  John,  he  went  to  the  Gentiles,  and  so  can- 
not possibly  have  preached  throughout  Judea.  There- 
fore this  detail  of  the  narrative  in  Acts  seems  to  be 
at  variance  with  Paul's  unquestionable  testimony  in 
Galatians. 

4.    In  Syria  and  Cilicia. 

If  Paul,  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit  to 
Jerusalem,  departed  because  of  the  hostility  of  the 
Hellenists,  then  there  is  nothing  improbable  in  the 
representation  of  Acts  that  the  brethren  brought  him 
down  to  Caesarea.4  The  passage  implies  that  from 
Caesarea  Paul  went  by  ship  to  Tarsus,  which  was  the 
quickest  and  least  expensive  route.  The  statement  of 
the  apostle  in  Galatians  is  simply  that  he  came  into 
the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia;  and  from  the  fact 
that  Syria  is  here  mentioned  first,  it  has  been  in- 
ferred5  that   Paul   went   by   land   instead   of   by   sea, 

1  Acts  xxvi.  20.  3  Gal.  ii.  I. 

2  Gal.  i.  21,  22.  4Actsix.  30. 

5  Clemen,  Chronologie  der  Paidinischen  Brief e,  p.  164. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   OBSCURITY  53 

and  that  he  began  his  preaching  in  Syria.  But  it  is 
surely  unsafe  to  argue  that  because  Paul  mentions 
Syria  before  Cilicia  in  his  summary  statement  of  where 
he  spent  the  subsequent  years,  therefore  he  began  work 
in  Syria,  and  hence  went  from  Jerusalem  by  land 
rather  than  by  sea,  as  Luke  says.  This  is  to  put  an 
unwarrantable  stress  on  the  order  of  words.  It  is 
manifest  that  he  may  have  mentioned  Syria  first  for 
other  reasons  than  because  he  began  there.  This 
order  of  words  would  have  been  natural  if  the  greater 
part  of  his  work  was  in  Syria.  Hence  there  is  no 
ground  afforded  by  the  order  of  words  in  Galatians 
for  the  view  that  Luke's  narrative  is  to  be  rejected. 

Of  the  length  of  the  period  which  Paul  spent  in 
the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  one  can  speak  only 
in  approximate  terms.  The  statement  of  Jiilicher,1 
that  Paul  was  there  fourteen  years  rests  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  visit  of  Gal.  ii.  1  was  made  at  the 
close  of  the  stay  in  Syria  and  Cilicia.  Now  the  ut- 
most that  can  be  said  is  that  if  we  had  only  the 
epistle  to  the  Galatians,  it  would  be  natural  to  think 
that  the  stay  in  Syria  and  Cilicia  continued  until  the 
journey  to  Jerusalem  in  Gal.  ii.  1.  That  interpretation 
would  not  be  absolutely  necessary,  for  since  the  pur- 
pose of  Paul  was  to  show  his  independence  of  those 
who  were  apostles   before   him,2  and   since  they  were 

1  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T.,  p.  23.  2  Gal.  i.  17. 


54  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

in  Jerusalem,  it  was  needful  only  to  say  that  he  was 
not  there.  It  was  relatively  unimportant  to  say  where 
he  was,  so  long  as  he  could  say  that  he  was  not  in 
Jerusalem.  We  cannot  therefore  affirm  at  once  that 
there  was  no  interval  between  the  work  in  Syria  and 
Cilicia1  and  the  visit  to  Jerusalem  which  is  mentioned 
in  Gal.  ii.  i.  All  that  we  can  affirm  is  that  Paul  did 
not  visit  Jerusalem  between  his  departure  to  Syria 
and  Cilicia  and  that  visit  which  came  after  fourteen 
years. 

It  is  to  be  held,  therefore,  in  harmony  with  Paul's 
narrative  in  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  that  the 
fourteen  years  of  Gal.  ii.  I  not  only  cover  the 
period  spent  in  Syria  and  Cilicia,  but  also  the  year 
passed  in  Antioch,2  and  the  first  tour  from  Antioch, 
commonly  called  the  first  missionary  journey.3  But 
since  this  tour  was  of  uncertain  duration,  we  are  unable 
to  determine  closely  how  long  Paul  spent  in  Syria 
and  Cilicia.  An  approximate  estimate  for  the  time  of 
this  first  tour  from  Antioch  is  three  years,  and  deduct- 
ing this,  with  the  year  spent  in  Antioch,  from  the 
fourteen  years,  we  have  left  ten  years  for  the  sojourn 
in  Syria  and  Cilicia.4 

How  these  years  were  spent  we  do  not  know  in 
detail.      The  only  direct  reference  which   Paul  makes 

1  Gal.  i.  21.  2  Acts  xi.  26.  8  Acts  xiii.-xiv. 

4  This  is  also  the  estimate  of  Ramsay,  Si.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  47. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  OBSCURITY  55 

to  the  work  in  Syria  and  Cilicia  is  in  the  epistle  to 
the  Galatians.  He  says  that  the  churches  in  Judea 
heard  that  he  was  preaching  the  faith  which  he  had 
once  sought  to  destroy,  and  that  they  glorified  God 
in  him.1  We  infer  from  this  that  he  did  successful 
evangelistic  work  in  Syria  and  Cilicia.  The  Book  of 
Acts  has  no  direct  reference  to  this  period  of  labor 
in  the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  but  nevertheless 
it  bears  witness  to  it,  for  it  says  that  Paul  at  the 
beginning  of  his  second  tour  from  Antioch  went 
through  Syria  and  Cilicia  confirming  the  churches?' 
Now  the  fact  that  Paul  visited  and  confirmed  certain 
churches  in  these  regions  leads  us  to  believe  that  he 
founded  them,  for  it  was  his  principle  not  to  build 
upon  another  man's  foundation.3  But  if  Paul  founded 
these  churches,  it  must  have  been  done  during  this 
period  of  ten  years  of  which  we  are  now  speaking. 

The  indications  are  that  these  churches  in  Syria 
and  Cilicia  were  predominantly  Gentile.  Paul  never 
established  a  church,  so  far  as  we  know,  which  was 
chiefly  Jewish  in  its  constituency,  and  since,  from 
the  hour  of  his  conversion,  he  had  a  conviction  that 
he  was  called  to  work  among  the  Gentiles,  we  natu- 
rally hold,  in  the  absence  of  any  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  that  his  Syrian  and  Cilician  labor  had  its 
chief    fruitage    among    the    Gentiles.       This    is    con- 

1  Gal.  i.  22-24.  2  Acts  xv.  41.  8  Rom.  xv.  20. 


56  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

firmed  by  the  statement  in  Acts  that  the  decree  of 
the  council  of  Jerusalem  was  addressed  to  the  breth- 
ren of  the  Gentiles  in  Antioch  and  Syria  and  Cilicia.1 

These,  then,  are  the  only  points  which  can  be  made 
out  with  certainty  regarding  the  Syrian  and  Cilician 
period  of  Paul's  life.  It  was  a  period  of  some  ten 
years,  and  Paul  spent  it  in  successful  evangelistic 
work,  chiefly  among  the  Gentiles.  But  we  are  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  details  of  Paul's  work  and  experiences 
in  these  years.  There  is  no  evidence  that  Antioch 
was  the  centre  of  his  activity,2  and  we  do  not  know 
the  name  of  a  single  city  in  which  he  labored.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  in  this  obscure  period  belong 
some  of  the  many  hardships  which  Paul  enumerates 
in  2  Cor.  xi.  23-33. 

The  period  was  doubtless  significant  for  Paul.  We 
may  assume  that  his  thought  of  Christianity  was  ma- 
tured, and  that  this  long  experience  in  evangelistic 
work  prepared  him  for  the  larger  and  better  known 
missions  of  later  years.  It  may  also  be  held  with 
Weizsacker3  that  in  this  period  Paul  became  perfectly 
assured  of  the  truth  of  his  principles  and  was  estab- 
lished in  the  belief  that  the  work  among  the  Gentiles 
was  indeed  a  work  of  God. 

1  Acts  xv.  23.  2  So  Weizsacker  and  Julicher. 

8  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  86. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Work  in  Antioch 

I.   The  City. 

Antioch,  the  royal  city  of  the  Syrian  kings  from  the 
time  of  Antiochus  IV.,1  and  later  the  residence  of  the 
Roman  proconsuls,  was  situated  on  the  Orontes  River, 
at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
about  sixteen  miles  from  the  coast.  Cicero  in  his 
oration  For  Arc/iias2  says  of  Antioch  that  it  was  for- 
merly an  illustrious  and  wealthy  city,  the  seat  of 
learned  men  and  liberal  sciences.  In  Paul's  time  also 
it  was  one  of  the  most  important  cities  of  the  East. 
Josephus 3  rates  it  as  the  third  city  in  the  empire,  Rome 
and  Alexandria  alone  taking  precedence  of  it.  Strabo 
reckons  it  as  the  fourth,  placing  above  it  not  only 
Rome  and  Alexandria  but  also  Seleucia  on  the  Tigris.4 
It  was  a  free  city,  having  bought  its  freedom  from 
Pompey,5  and  at  the  same  time  was  the  residence  of  the 
governor  of  the  province.     If  we  may  form  an  estimate 

1  Jewish  War,  vii.  3.  3.  2  Pro  A.  Lie.  Archia,  cap.  III. 

3  Jewish  War,  iii.  2.  4. 

4  Marquardt,  Romische  Staatsverwaltung,  I.  416,  note  13;  Strabo, 
Miiller's  edition,  p.  638.  6  Marquardt,  I.  77,  note  12. 

57 


58  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

of  its  population  on  the  basis  of  I  Maccabees1  and 
Josephus,2  it  may  easily  have  been  a  million  in  the 
time  of  Nicator,  for  the  Gentile  population  of  the  city 
is  there  represented  as  furnishing  an  army  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand,  and  the  Jewish  population  is 
represented  as  slaying  ten  myriads  in  a  great  conflict. 

The  chief  street  of  Antioch  was  broad  and  ran  in  a 
straight  line  through  the  city,  a  distance  of  some  two 
and  a  half  miles.  It  was  paved  with  polished  marble 
by  Herod  the  Great,  who  also  built  colonnades  on  both 
sides  of  it.3 

Antioch  had  a  large  Jewish  population,  who  from  the 
time  of  Seleucus  (312-280  b.c.)  had  enjoyed  the  right 
of  citizenship  and  special  immunities.4  Their  syna- 
gogue next  to  that  in  Alexandria  was  the  most  mag- 
nificent in  the  world.  Among  its  ornaments  were 
votive  gifts  of  brass  which  Antiochus  Epiphanes  had 
taken  from  the  temple  in  Jerusalem.5  Josephus  tells 
us  that  a  very  large  number  of  proselytes  were  attached 
to  this  synagogue,  a  fact  of  great  significance  for  the 
church  which  was  to  be  established  there  in  coming  time. 

2.   The  Origin  of  the  Church  in  Antioch. 
The  martyrdom  of  Stephen  and  the  bitter  persecu- 
tions which  ensued  scattered  all  the  Christians  of  Jeru- 

1  Chapter  xi.  41-51.  4  Schurer,  II.  498,  529. 

2  Antiquities,  xiii.  5.  3.  5  Schurer,  II.  542. 
8  Antiquities,  xvi.  5.  3;  Jewish  War,  i.  21.  II. 


THE   WORK   IN  ANTIOCH  59 

salem,1  and  those  from  the  Dispersion  returned  to  their 
homes,  some  to  Phoenicia  and  Cyprus  and  Antioch.2 
The  statement  of  Luke  is  intrinsically  probable  that 
these  Hellenistic  believers,  as  a  rule,  preached  the  word 
to  Jews  only,  and  that  it  was  an  extraordinary  event 
when  some  who  were  natives  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene 
preached  the  Lord  Jesus  in  Antioch  to  Greeks  also. 
This  preaching  resulted  in  the  conversion  of  a  large 
number  of  Gentiles,  and  the  report  of  the  work  came 
to  the  church  in  Jerusalem.  Barnabas  was  accord- 
ingly sent  to  Antioch,  and  continued  there  in  accept- 
able labor  for  more  than  a  year.  During  most  of  this 
time  he  was  aided  by  Paul,  whom  he  had  sought  out 
and  brought  from  his  mission  field  somewhere  in  Syria 
or  Cilicia.3 

This  narrative  regarding  the  early  history  of  the 
church  in  Antioch  is  said  to  be  impossible.4  The 
account  which  Paul  gives  us  of  his  relation  to  the 
church  in  Jerusalem  is  said  to  exclude  the  possibility 
that  the  church  of  Antioch  was  watched  and  guided 
from  Jerusalem,  and  that  Paul  came  to  Antioch  as 
the  helper  of  Barnabas,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  under  the 
direction  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem.  But  do  the  facts 
really  support  this  judgment  ?  Are  we  justified  in 
assuming  that  the  church  in  Jerusalem  sent  out  Barna- 

1  Acts  viii.  1.  2  Acts  xi.  19,  20.  3  Acts  xi.  22-26. 

*  So  Weizsacker,  Das  Aposlolischc  Zeitalter,  p.  91. 


60  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

bas  with  the  design  of  controlling  the  work  in  Antioch  ? 
It  is  certain  that  Barnabas  was  not  one  of  the  more 
conservative  Jewish  believers,  for  we  know  from  Paul 
himself  that  Barnabas  had  labored  with  him  among 
the  Gentiles.1  But  if  he  was  a  man  of  like  mind  with 
Paul  in  regard  to  the  right  of  preaching  the  Gospel 
directly  to  the  Gentiles,  is  it  likely  that  the  Jewish 
church  of  Jerusalem  sent  him  to  Antioch  to  guide 
the  movement  there  in  the  interest  of  Jewish  Chris- 
tianity ?     Plainly  this  hypothesis  is  untenable. 

If  the  church  in  Jerusalem  was  Christian,  it  must 
have  felt  a  deep  interest  in  such  a  work  as  that  which 
was  reported  from  Antioch,  and  must  have  desired 
to  render  any  service  in  its  power.  And  what  more 
natural  than  to  send  to  this  young  church  an  experi- 
enced and  able  teacher  and  helper?  But  this  is  not 
all.  The  church  in  Jerusalem  undoubtedly  looked 
with  considerable  distrust  and  hesitation  upon  the 
free  offer  of  Jesus  to  the  Gentiles.  This  is  the  clear 
testimony  of  Paul  and  also  of  Acts.  There  had  been 
thus  far  but  one  instance  of  preaching  to  Gentiles,2 
and  that  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  isolated 
and  exceptional.  Peter's  scruples  were  only  over- 
come by  a  vision.3  The  Christian  brethren  who  went 
with  Peter  to  the  house  of  Cornelius  were  amazed 
that    the    Spirit    was    given   to   Gentiles,4   and    when 

1  Gal.  ii.  I,  9.  2  Acts  x.  3  Acts  x.  9-16.  *  Acts  x.  45. 


THE   WORK   IN   ANTIOCH  6 1 

Peter  returned  to  Jerusalem  he  was  called  to  account 
for  his  conduct.  The  church  finally  endorsed  his  act 
because  it  seemed  to  be  so  manifestly  owned  of  God.1 
Hence  .this  doubt  of  the  Jerusalem  church  regarding 
the  propriety  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles 
made  it  more  solicitous  for  the  work  in  Antioch.  It 
shrank  from  admitting  the  Gentiles,  and  some  of  its 
members  may  have  been  immovably  opposed  to  it, 
but  the  church  as  a  whole  could  not  refuse  in  case 
the  conversion  of  the  Gentiles  was  evidently  a  work 
of  God. 

It  seems  unwarrantable  also  to  say  with  Weizsacker 
that  Paul's  relation  to  the  church  in  Jerusalem  was 
such  that  we  cannot  conceive  of  his  being  a  helper  of 
Barnabas,  and  so  in  a  sense  under  the  direction  of  the 
mother  church.  In  the  first  place,  the  Book  of  Acts 
does  not  represent  Barnabas  as  having  or  claiming 
to  have  any  official  relation  to  the  church  in  Antioch. 
His  presence  there  was  not  recognized  as  bringing 
the  church  of  Antioch  under  the  authority  of  the 
church  in  Jerusalem.  The  text  suggests  no  such 
idea.  And  surely  there  is  no  inherent  improbability 
in  the  statement  that  Paul  came  to  Antioch  at  the 
request  of  Barnabas.  We  know  from  Paul  himself 
that  they  were  men  of  kindred  spirit,  and  we  have 
no  right  whatever  to  say  that  Paul  would  have  refused 

1  Acts  xi.  18. 


62  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

this   request   for  help  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not 
the  originator  of  the  work  in  Antioch. 

3.  Paul's  Mission  to  Jerusalem  in  the  Jtidean 
Famine. 

According  to  the  Book  of  Acts  Paul  made  a  visit 
to  Jerusalem,  in  company  with  Barnabas,  either 
during  the  year  spent  in  Antioch,1  or  soon  after 
it.  The  church  in  Antioch  requested  him  to  make 
this  trip,  to  convey  relief  to  the  Christians  of  Judea. 
The  prophet  Agabus  had  foretold  a  famine,  and  thus 
had  stirred  up  the  Christians  of  Antioch  to  prepare 
to  aid  their  fellow-believers  in  Judea.2  There  seems 
to  be  nothing  intrinsically  improbable  in  this  narra- 
tive. There  were  prophets  in  the  early  Church  who 
sometimes  claimed  to  announce  future  events.3  It 
is  quite  natural  that,  if  they  foresaw  a  famine  in 
Judea,  they  should  seek  to  prepare  for  it  by  enlist- 
ing the  sympathy  of  Christians  abroad,  and  the 
wealthy  city  of  Antioch  would  offer  them  an  at- 
tractive field.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Paul  would  refuse  to  represent  the  church  of  Antioch 
in  the  distribution  of  its  offering.  In  subsequent 
years  he  was  zealous  in  behalf  of  the  poor  in  Jeru- 
salem,   and   more   than    once    raised    funds   for   them 

1  Acts  xi.  26.  2  Acts  xi.  27,  28;  xxi.  10. 

3  Acts  xxi.  10,  II. 


THE  WORK  IN   ANTIOCH  63 

among  his  Gentile  converts.1  The  prophecy  of  Aga- 
bus  is  essentially  confirmed  by  Josephus.  He  tells 
us  that  there  was  a  severe  famine  in  Judea  under 
the  procurators  Fadus  and  Tiberius  Alexander,  that 
is,  in  the  period  44-48  a.d.2  According  to  Acts,  Aga- 
bus  foretold  a  universal  famine,  that  is,  universal  in 
the  Roman  empire.  There  is  no  evidence  that  such 
a  famine  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Claudius,  though 
there  were  local  famines  in  different  sections  of  the 
empire  in  different  years  of  his  reign.3  It  is  prob- 
able that  Agabus  prophesied  a  famine  in  Judea,  and 
that  this  prophecy  was  modified  in  tradition  under 
the  influence  of  the  fact  that  the  reign  of  Claudius 
was  marked  by  an  unusual  number  of  famines.  This 
hypothesis  is  favored  by  the  consideration  that  if 
Agabus  had  foreseen  a  universal  famine,  and  had 
announced  it  in  Antioch,  the  Christians  of  that  city 
would  naturally  have  laid  up  means  for  their  own 
need.  But  of  this  there  is  no  trace.  Moreover,  this 
hypothesis  is  supported  also  by  the  fact  that  Agabus 
as  a  Christian  prophet,  one  who  was  concerned  with 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  with  the  world  only  as 
it  was  related  to  that  kingdom,  had  nothing  to 
do  with  a  universal  famine.  It  is  improbable  that 
he  prophesied  a  famine  in  Spain,  for  example,  or  in 

1  Gal.  ii.  10 ;   Rom.  xv.  25-28. 

2  Antiquities,  xx.  2.  5;   5.  2;   Hi.  15.  3.  8  Schurer,  I.  474. 


64  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

Gaul,  or  in  Asia  Minor,  for  there  is  no  apparent 
Christian  use  for  such  a  prophecy  and  no  motive  for 
it.  It  is  to  be  held  therefore  that  Agabus  prophe- 
sied a  local  famine,  and  that  the  language  of  Acts 
shows  the  influence  of  well-known  facts  of  subse- 
quent years. 

But  while  the  narrative  of  this  journey  of  Paul 
and  Barnabas  to  Jerusalem  is  in  itself  acceptable,  a 
good  many  scholars  reject  it  because  Paul's  account 
of  his  visits  to  Jerusalem  in  Gal.  i.,  ii.  does  not  men- 
tion it.1  Now  Paul  is  unquestionably  our  highest 
authority  on  the  events  of  his  own  life,  and  if  it  is 
quite  plain  that  he  was  under  obligation  to  mention 
all  the  visits  that  he  made  to  Jerusalem  before  the 
time  of  the  council,  then  plainly  we  cannot  accept 
the  narrative  of  Acts.  But  was  he  under  such  an 
obligation  to  the  Galatians  ?  That  is  the  point  upon 
which  everything  here  depends.  Now  if  there  is 
any  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  answer  to  be  given  to 
this  question,  then  we  must  admit  that  the  narrative 
in  Acts  may  be  historical. 

The  work  of  Paul  in  Galatia  had  been  seriously 
endangered  by  Jewish  believers  who  insisted  upon 
the  circumcision  of  the  Gentiles  and  their  observ- 
ance of  the  law.  They  sought  to  undermine  Paul's 
work   by  denying   his   authority.      Therefore    Paul   in 

1  So,  e.g.  Pfleiderer,  Wendt,  Julicher,  Volkmar,  and  Weizsacker. 


THE  WORK   IN   ANTIOCH  65 

his  letter  to  the  Galatians  insists  upon  his  divine 
authorization  to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  his  inde- 
pendence of  the  original  apostles.  He  declares  that 
he  received  his  Gospel  through  a  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  not  from  men.1  In  establishing  this 
statement  he  narrates  how  God  revealed  His  Son  in 
him,  and  how  for  the  first  three  years  of  his  Chris- 
tian life  he  did  not  even  see  the  original  apostles.2 
At  the  end  of  that  time  he  met  Peter,  and  James 
the  brother  of  Jesus,  and  was  in  communication 
with  them  for  fifteen  days.3  Then  after  fourteen 
years  his  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles  was  officially  recog- 
nized by  the  leaders  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem,4 
and  still  later,  while  in  Antioch,  he  had  openly  re- 
sisted Peter  because,  having  once  associated  with  the 
Gentile  believers,  he  then  withdrew  from  them. 

The  sole  contention  of  Paul  is  that  he  received 
his  Gospel  from  Jesus,  and  was  independent  of  the 
original  apostles.  Now  as  the  primitive  apostles 
remained  a  long  time  in  the  mother  church  at 
Jerusalem,  Paul  speaks  of  his  visits  to  that  city  and 
his  relation  to  that  church.  He  is  under  obliga- 
tion, according  to  his  own  statement,  to  mention 
all  facts  which  might  fairly  be  said  to  involve  depend- 
ence or  independence  regarding  his  relation  to  the 
elder  apostles.      If  he  had  made  a  second  visit  when 

1  Gal.  i.  i,  12.  2  Gal.  i.  17.  3  Gal.  i.  18,  19.  *  Gal.  ii.  9. 

F 


66  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

he  spent  even  fifteen  days  with  Peter,  he  must  have 
mentioned  the  fact,  especially  if  it  had  fallen  in  the 
earlier  years  of  his  Christian  ministry ;  but  under 
what  obligation  was  he  to  refer  to  a  journey  to  Jeru- 
salem if  it  brought  him  into  no  contact  with  the  apos- 
tles ?  Such  a  visit  would  have  no  more  bearing  upon 
the  point  in  hand  than  would  a  visit  to  Damascus. 
We  have  no  right  then  to  assume  that  in  Gal.  i.,  ii. 
Paul  is  enumerating  all  his  visits  to  Jerusalem.  What 
the  argument  requires  is  that  he  enumerates  his  inter- 
views with  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem. 

Therefore,  if  it  is  conceivable  that  Paul  could  visit 
Jerusalem  with  a  contribution  from  the  church  in 
Antioch  and  not  come  into  contact  with  the  apostles,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  narrative  in  Acts  may  be 
historical. 

The  supposition  of  Lightfoot,  that  the  apostles 
may  have  been  absent  from  the  city,  or  in  hiding, 
just  at  this  time,  since  Herod  had  put  one  of  their 
number  to  death  and  imprisoned  another,  ought  not 
to  be  treated  with  contempt.1  It  is  assumed  that  if 
they  fled  or  hid  themselves  they  were  cowards.  But 
Paul  repeatedly  fled  before  persecution,  and  no  sane 
man  will  call  him  a  coward.  Even  Jesus  hid  from 
His  enemies,2  and  told  His  disciples  to  flee  when  per- 

1  Ramsay,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  53. 

2  John  xii.  36;   Luke  ix.  9,  10. 


THE  WORK  IN  ANTIOCH  67 

secuted.1  The  hypothesis  therefore  is  plausible,  and 
involves  no  discredit  for  the  apostles.  But  the  histori- 
cal character  of  the  narrative  in  Acts  does  not  stand 
or  fall  with  this  hypothesis,  as  we  have  shown  above. 
Finally,  the  suggestion  of  Weiss2  is  worthy  of  con- 
sideration that  after  Paul  had  come  forward  as  a 
preacher,  as  he  did  when  he  left  Jerusalem  for  Syria 
and  Cilicia,  there  was  no  further  interest  in  record- 
ing his  visits  to  Jerusalem,  for  the  possibility  of  his 
being  instructed  in  the  Gospel  was  now  excluded. 

4.    The  Name  Christian. 

The  first  general  preaching  to  the  Gentiles  was 
that  in  Antioch,  and  hence  the  statement  of  Luke 
is  inherently  probable  that  with  the  success  of  this 
preaching  arose  the  name  Christian?  He  indicates 
that  the  name  originated  outside  the  Church  when 
he  says  that  the  disciples  were  called  Christians.  It 
is  altogether  likely  that  the  name  originated  among 
the  Gentiles,  not  among  the  Jews;  for  the  Jews  did 
not  admit  that  the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  followers 
of  the  true  Messiah  or  Christ,  and  if  they  had  called 
them  Christians  they  would  have  appeared  to  admit 
what  they  did  not  believe. 

It  has  frequently  been  said  that  the  name  was  given 
in  derision  or  sport.     Thus  Farrar4  regards  it  as  a  nick- 

1  Matt.  x.  23.  2  Einleitung,  2d  ed.,  p.  122.  8  Acts  xi.  26. 

4  The  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,  p.  168. 


68  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

name  given  by  the  vulgar,  as  though  he  had  the  word 
of  Tacitus 1  in  mind.  Ramsay 2  affirms  that  it  belonged 
to  the  popular  slang.  But  the  only  evidence  for  this 
singular  view  is  the  statement  that  the  people  of  Anti- 
och  were  notorious  for  inventing  names  of  derision. 
This  support,  however,  is  much  too  feeble.  For  even 
if  it  were  granted  that  Antioch  was  notorious  for  the 
invention  of  names  of  derision,  which  is  by  no  means 
proven  by  the  citation  of  two  or  three  such  names,  still 
it  would  be  unwarrantable  to  infer  that  every  name 
which  originated  there  was  one  of  derision.  More- 
over, there  is  nothing  in  the  name  itself  to  support  this 
notion.  It  is  a  natural  mode  of  designation  to  call  the 
disciples  by  the  name  of  their  master.  Just  as  the 
supporters  of  Herod  are  called  Herodians,3  so  the  dis- 
ciples of  CJiristos  are  called  Christians.  In  the  preach- 
ing of  the  apostolic  age,  Christ  was  the  great  theme, 
and  His  name  must  have  been  familiar  to  a  large  num- 
ber of  people  outside  the  Church.  He  was  preached  as 
Messiah  and  King,  and  nothing  could  have  been  more 
natural  than  to  call  His  disciples  by  His  name.  The 
rise  of  the  name  Christians  implies  that  the  Gentile 
believers  in  Antioch  were  recognized  as  independent 
of  the  synagogue  and  separate  from  the  Jews,  and  so 
it  may  be  regarded  as  contemporaneous  with  the  first 
distinctly  Gentile  Christian  church. 

1  Annals,  xv.  44.        -  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  48.        3  Mark  iii.  6. 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  First  Missionary  Tour  from  Antioch1 

i.    Barnabas  and  Paid  set  apart. 

It  is  certain  that  Paul  was  not  recognized  in  Antioch 
as  an  apostle  at  the  time  of  his  separation  unto  the 
missionary  work.  Had  he  claimed  apostleship  at  this 
time  and  had  the  claim  been  recognized,  the  act  of 
dedication  to  the  Gentile  work  would  have  seemed 
incongruous.  For  if  his  fellow  prophets  and  teachers 
had  known  of  this  appointment,  if  they  had  known 
that  he  considered  himself  divinely  ordained  to  work 
among  the  Gentiles,2  it  is  hardly  probable  that  they 
would  have  formally  set  him  apart,  especially  as  they 
were  not  an  ecclesiastical  body.     It  is  therefore  to  be 

1  It  is  quite  generally  recognized  that  the  author  of  Acts  had  a  written 
source  covering  the  first  tour  from  Antioch,  which  was  distinct  from  the 
sources  at  his  disposal  for  the  preceding  chapters.  It  is  also  recognized 
that  this  source  bears  the  marks  of  trustworthiness.  Evidence  that  we 
have  a  new  source  in  chapter  xiii.  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  presence  of 
Barnabas  and  Paul  in  Antioch  is  mentioned  just  as  though  there  had  been 
no  previous  reference  to  their  work  there.  But  according  to  the  eleventh 
chapter  they  had  had  a  large  part  in  founding  the  church  in  Antioch,  and 
the  last  verse  of  chapter  xii.  tells  of  their  return  to  Antioch  from  Jerusalem. 

2  Gal.  i.  1 6. 

69 


JO  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF  PAUL 

held  that  Paul's  call  to  be  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
was  unknown  in  Antioch  at  this  time.  Nor  should  it 
be  considered  strange  that  Paul  had  not  published  this 
fact.  We  might  never  have  heard  from  his  lips  any- 
thing about  his  commission  as  apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
if  his  authority  had  not  been  attacked.  But  again  it 
is  certain  that  Paul  did  not  date  his  apostleship  from 
the  hour  of  the  dedication  service  in  Antioch.  He 
says  that  his  apostleship  was  not  from  men  neither 
through  man}  and  he  plainly  could  not  have  said  this 
if  he  had  been  constituted  an  apostle  by  the  brethren 
in  Antioch.  Farrar2  thinks  that  Paul  received  the 
title  of  apostle  in  its  more  special  signification  after 
his  dedication  in  Antioch,  and  refers  to  the  two  occa- 
sions3 on  the  first  tour  from  Antioch  when  Paul  was 
called  an  apostle.  But  Barnabas  is  there  called  an 
apostle  no  less  than  Paul,  and  he  surely  was  not  an 
apostle  in  the  "  more  special  signification "  of  that 
term.  There  is  no  reason  then  to  connect  Paul's  title 
with  the  event  in  Antioch.  In  the  eyes  of  the  church 
there  Paul  was  a  prophet  or  teacher,  or  both,4  and 
apparently  less  prominent  than  some  others.  He  is 
mentioned  last  of  five  men  who  are  introduced  as 
propliets  and  teachers. 

There  is  no   good   reason   to   hold   that   Luke   had 

1  Gal.  i.  I.  8  Acts  xiv.  4,  14. 

2  The  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,  p.  188.  4  Acts  xiii.  I. 


THE  FIRST  MISSIONARY  TOUR  yi 

two  distinct  classes  in  mind  when  he  said  prophets 
and  teachers,  and  if  he  did,  it  is  not  possible  to  deter- 
mine who  belonged  to  each  class.1  Paul  at  least  was 
conscious  of  being  both  prophet  and  teacher.2 

The  dedication  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  was  not  per- 
formed by  the  church  in  Antioch,  but  by  Symeon, 
Lucius,  and  Manaen.  While  these  five  men  were 
fasting,  on  a  certain  occasion,  and  engaged  in  some 
undescribed  service  belonging  to  them  as  prophets 
and  teachers,  it  was  borne  in  upon  them  by  the  Spirit 
that  Barnabas  and  Paul  should  be  separated  unto 
the  work  among  the  Gentiles.  In  what  way  this  com- 
munication of  the  Spirit  came  we  are  not  told.  A 
certain  preparation  for  it  lay  in  the  fact  that  Barna- 
bas and  Paul  had  been  signally  blessed  of  the  Lord 
in  the  work  in  Antioch,  which  was  largely  a  work 
among  Gentiles.  Here  they  had  shown  a  manifest 
fitness  for  this  kind  of  Christian  work,  and  hence 
their  brethren  may  well  have  felt  that  it  was  the  will 
of  God  that  they  should  be  dedicated  to  it.  Accord- 
ingly they  fasted,  and  laid  their  hands  upon  Barnabas 
and  Paul,  with  prayer,  and  sent  them  forth.  What 
part  the  church  had  in  this  dedication,  whether  indeed 
it  had  any  part,  we  are  not  told.  It  is  plain  that  if  it 
had  any  part,  it  was  quite  subordinate,  since  it  is  not 

1  Comp.  Wendt  in  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts,  p.  279. 

2  1  Cor.  xiv.  6. 


72  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

mentioned.  Barnabas  and  Paul  were  dedicated  by  the 
other  prophets  and  teachers,  and  the  church  is  not 
alluded  to  in  the  narrative.  Hence  the  separation  of 
Barnabas  and  Paul  was  in  no  sense  an  ecclesiastical 
ordination.1  No  authority  was  imparted  to  them. 
There  was  simply  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the 
Spirit  had  called  them,  and  a  prayerful  dedication  of 
them  to  the  appointed  service  by  their  associates  in 
the  work  in  Antioch. 

2.    The  Tour  of  Cyprus. 

When  Paul  set  out  from  Antioch  with  Barnabas, 
it  was  not  on  his  first  missionary  tour.  He  had  been 
laboring  for  years  in  Syria  and  Cilicia.  Nor  are  we  to 
say  that  this  was  the  "  first  missionary  journey  for- 
mally and  officially  undertaken,"  while  the  previous 
preaching  of  Paul  had  been  that  of  an  individual.2 
There  is  no  trace  of  an  official  relation  between  Paul 
and  the  church  in  Antioch.  He  is  not  a  missionary 
of  that  church,  supported  and  directed  by  it.  He  is 
as  independent  in  his  work  after  the  year  spent  in 
Antioch  as  he  had  been  before.  But  Antioch  was  in 
a  sense  his  church-home,  a  church  with  which  he  was 
in-  full  sympathy,  a  church  which  from  its  location 
and  numbers  was  of  great  importance,  and  therefore  it 

1  Comp.  Bethge,  Die  Paulinischen  Reden  der  Apostelgeschichte,  p.  13. 
Hort,  Judaistic  Christianity,  p.  63,  holds  the  ecclesiastical  view  of  the 
event.  2  Hort,  Judaistic  Christianity,  p.  63. 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY  TOUR  ?■$ 

was  natural  that  he  should  return  thither  again  and 
again  during  the  years  of  his  missionary  labors. 

The  fact  that  Barnabas  was  a  native  of  Cyprus,1 
very  likely  decided  the  missionaries  to  go  first  to  that 
island.  The  Gospel  had  already  been  preached  there 
to  some  extent,  but  we  do  not  know  with  what  suc- 
cess.2 Moreover,  some  of  the  men  who  had  begun  the 
work  of  the  Gospel  in  Antioch  were  Cypriote  Jews,3 
and  therefore  there  may  have  been  among  the  Antio- 
chian  Christians  a  special  acquaintance  with  the  needs 
of  Cyprus  which  had  something  to  do  in  determining 
the  route  of  Barnabas  and  Paul. 

The  distance  from  Antioch  to  Cyprus  is  about  one 
hundred  and  forty  miles.  The  missionaries  probably 
walked  from  Antioch  to  Seleucia,  which  was  the  har- 
bor of  Antioch  and  about  sixteen  miles  distant,  and 
there  took  a  boat  to  Salamis,  the  eastern  port  of 
Cyprus.  They  were  accompanied  by  John  Mark,  a 
young  man  whom  they  had  brought  with  them  from 
Jerusalem  to  Antioch,4  and  who  perhaps  attended  them 
now  as  a  body  servant.  Mark  was  a  cousin  of  Barna- 
bas,5 and  it  is  not  improbable  that  Barnabas  was  the 
one  who  suggested  taking  him  on  the  tour. 

The  missionaries  began  their  work  in  Salamis,  and 
went  through  the  whole  island  to  Paphos,  a  distance 

1  Acts  iv.  37.  a  Acts  xi.  19.  8  Acts  xi.  20. 

4  Acts  xiii.  5;  xii.  12.  6  Col.  iv.  10. 


74  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

of  about  one  hundred  miles.  Paphos  was  the  chief 
city  of  the  island,  and  the  residence  of  the  proconsul.1 
Luke  says  that  they  preached  in  the  synagogues, 
and  makes  no  reference  to  any  work  among  the 
Gentiles.2 

The  one  incident  of  the  tour  which  he  preserves  is 
Paul's  meeting  with  the  Roman  proconsul.3  Sergius 
Paulus  summoned  Barnabas  and  Paul  into  his  presence, 
whether  chiefly  out  of  curiosity  or  with  some  religious 
interest  cannot  be  determined.  He  sought  to  hear 
what  the  missionaries  had  to  say,  but  they  were  in- 
terrupted by  a  Jewish  sorcerer,  Bar-Jesus,  who  gave 
himself  the  Arabic  title  Elymas,  which  means  wise. 
Sergius  Paulus  was  a  reasoning,  intelligent  man,  and 
yet  he  had  this  magian  near  him.  He  may  have  hoped 
to  learn  something  of  the  invisible  world  through  his 
art,  or  may  have  retained  him  as  a  physician.  The 
study  of  magic  was  widespread  at  this  time,  and  was 
cultivated  even  by  the  Jews.  Many  magic  formulas 
were  in  use,  especially  for  healing,4  and  Josephus5 
says  that  many  of  these  were  composed  by  Solomon. 
The  magi  were  supported  and  consulted  by  some  of 
the  most  intelligent  people  of  the  times,  and  we  can- 
not regard  their  profession  as  pure  fraud.      Ramsay6 

1  Marquardt,  I.  390-392.  4  SchUrer,  II.  691,  692. 

2  Acts  xiii.  5.  6  Antiquities,  viii.  2.  5. 

8  Acts  xiii.  6-12.  6  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  78. 


THE   FIRST  MISSIONARY  TOUR  75 

is  of  the  opinion  that  they  represented  not  only  the 
modern  fortune-teller,  but  also  the  man  of  science. 

Elymas  opposed  Paul  and  Barnabas,  very  likely  be- 
cause he  regarded  them  as  magi  like  himself,  and 
feared  that  they  might  supplant  him  in  the  favor  of 
the  proconsul.  This  opposition  aroused  all  the  energy 
of  Paul's  soul,  and  according  to  Luke's  account  he 
spoke  words  of  judgment  against  the  sorcerer  which 
were  straightway  fulfilled  in  a  temporary  blindness. 

The  spiritual  result  of  this  act  upon  the  proconsul  is 
not  plain.  Luke  says  he  believed,  being  astonished. 
But  what  did  he  believe  ?  Did  he  believe  that  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah  ?  He  of  course  believed  that  Paul 
had  a  subtle  power  not  possessed  by  Bar-Jesus,  but  did 
that  belief  lead  him  to  a  spiritual  acceptance  of  the 
Gospel  of  Paul  ?  Luke's  language  seems  to  imply  an 
affirmative  answer  to  this  question.  If,  however,  we 
think  of  Sergius  Paulus  as  won  to  the  faith  by  this 
incident,  we  may  hold  that  his  faith  was  mingled  with 
much  superstition  and  ignorance. 

Luke  changes  the  name  of  his  hero  at  this  point  in 
the  narrative.  Prior  to  this  hour  he  calls  him  Saul 
exclusively,  and  after  this  Paul  exclusively.  We  can 
only  conjecture  the  reason  for  the  change,  and  the 
origin  of  the  name  Paul.  The  view  that  Paul  adopted 
the  proconsul  as  his  patron,1  and  so  took  his  name,  is 

1  Renan,  Saint  Paul,  p.  18. 


j6  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

quite  at  variance  with  Paul's  independence,  and  also 
with  his  consciousness  of  being  an  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  possible  that  he  had  had  both  names  from 
childhood,  in  accordance  with  the  practice  of  the  Hel- 
lenists,1 and  that  Luke  introduced  the  second  name  as 
a  memorial  of  the  deed  in  Paphos,  the  first  miracle 
attributed  to  Paul.  It  is  also  possible  that  Paul  took 
the  name  after  his  conversion,2  in  analogy  with  the  fact 
that  Jesus  frequently  gave  new  names  to  His  disciples  ; 
and  if  this  was  the  case,  we  may  suppose  that  he  chose 
it  because  he  was  little  in  his  own  estimation,  which  is 
the  meaning  of  the  Latin  word  paiilus. 

The  tour  through  Cyprus  does  not  appear  to  have 
resulted  in  many  conversions.  Luke  is  in  the  habit 
of  recording  results,  but  here  he  is  silent.  It  may 
perhaps  be  inferred  from  Acts  xv.  36,  that  some  dis- 
ciples were  won,  for  there  Paul  and  Barnabas  propose 
to  visit  the  brethren  in  every  city  where  they  had 
preached,  and  after  the  separation  of  the  two  mission- 
aries Barnabas  went  to  Cyprus. 

3.    The  Work  in  Pisidian  Antioch. 

Luke  does  not  suggest  why  the  missionaries  went 
north  from  Cyprus  to  Perga,  and  then  from  Perga  to 
Antioch  of  Pisidia ; 3  nor  do  we  know  that  they  had  any 

1  Lewin,  The  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  3d  ed.,  1875,  J-  6- 

2  So  Jiilicher  and  Weizsacker. 

8  Antioch  was  not  in  Pisidia,  but  near  its  boundary. 


THE  FIRST  MISSIONARY  TOUR  'J'J 

special  route  planned  when  they  set  out.  The  sea- 
voyage  from  Paphos  to  Perga  is  one  of  about  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  miles.  No  halt  seems  to  have 
been  made  in  Perga,  though  there  were  doubtless  Jews 
in  that  city.1  The  only  incident  connected  with  the 
place  was  the  departure  of  Mark,  who  returned  to 
Jerusalem.2  It  is  simple  conjecture  to  say  that  he  gave 
up  the  tour  because  he  feared  hardships.3  We  know 
only  that  at  a  later  time  Paul  looked  back  on  Mark's 
action  as  showing  unfitness  for  further  missionary 
service,4  while  Barnabas  seems  not  to  have  regarded  it 
a*5  especially  blameworthy. 

The  hypothesis  that  Paul  contracted  a  malarial  fever 
in  Perga  and  went  up  to  Antioch  in  the  highlands  for 
his  health5  is  characterized  by  Zockler6  as  an  "empty 
fancy,"  and  this  estimate  seems  just.  Luke  gives 
a  detailed  account  of  the  work  in  Antioch,  but  makes 
no  reference  to  any  sickness  of  Paul.  And  moreover 
a  malarial  fever  does  not  meet  the  requirements  of 
Paul's  language  in  Gal.  iv.  13,  14.  Such  a  fever  would 
not  make  him  an  object  of  contempt  or  abhorrence 
either  while  he  was  suffering  from  the  attack  or  after  it 
had  passed. 

1  See  Acts  ii.  10,  where  Jews  from  Pamphylia  are  mentioned,  in  which 
province  Perga  was  a  prominent  city.  2  Acts  xiii.  13. 

8  So  Conybeare  and  Howson.  4  Acts  xv.  37-40. 

6  Ramsay  in  Expositor,  1892,  Vol.  VI.  p.  373  f. 
6  Studien  und  Kritiken,  1895,  p.  63. 


78  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

Antioch,  described  by  Strabo  as  near  Pisidia}  is 
identified  with  the  modern  Jalowadj,  ninety  miles 
in  a  straight  line  northeast  from  Perga,  but  much 
more  than  that  by  any  travelled  road.  It  was  a 
Roman  colony,  planted  by  Augustus,  and  consisted  of 
veterans  of  the  Fifth  Gallic  legion.2  The  privileges  of 
the  provincial  colonies  were  not  always  the  same,  and 
they  changed  from  time  to  time.  From  the  period 
of  Augustus  the  main  privileges  were  the  following: 
liberty  from  the  control  of  the  governor  of  the  prov- 
ince, immunity  from  poll  and  land  taxes,  and  full 
possession  of  the  land.3  The  inner  organization  of 
the  colony  was  modelled  after  that  of  Rome.  In  the 
time  of  the  empire,  foreign  cities  in  which  colonies 
were  planted,  as  was  the  case  in  Antioch,  became 
colonies  in  their  entire  extent,  that  is,  the  former  popu- 
lation became  Roman  citizens.  The  administration  of 
the  government  in  Antioch  appears  to  have  been  in 
the  hands  of  two  magistrates,  who  were  over  the  sen- 
ate and  the  popular  assembly.4 

Of  the  details  of  the  work  in  Antioch,  as  of  that 
in  Iconium,  Lystra,  and  Derbe,  the  Book  of  Acts  is 
our    only   sourceo      We    have    no    references    to    this 

1  Muller's  edition,  p.  494. 

2  Marquardt,  Romische  Siaatsverwaltung,  I.  365. 
8  Marquardt,  I.  88-92. 

4  Marquardt,  I.  365,  note  2;    152,  153. 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY  TOUR  79 

period  by  Paul  in  his  letters,  for  the  modern  theory 
that  the  churches  which  Paul  founded  at  this  time 
were  the  "  churches  of  Galatia " 1  cannot,  I  think, 
maintain  itself.2 

Again,  of  the  narrative  in  Acts  the  material  can 
hardly  all  be  regarded  as  of  quite  equal  value.  Thus 
the  address  which  is  attributed  to  Paul,  like  those  of 
subsequent  chapters,  is  plainly  not  a  verbatim  report. 
The  occasion  called  for  an  address  of  an  hour  or  two 
in  length,3  but  the  words  in  Acts  can  be  read  in  less 
than  five  minutes.  Moreover,  as  a  literary  production, 
it  bears  the  stamp  of  Luke,  not  of  Paul,  and  there- 
fore can  neither  be  regarded  as  a  verbatim  report  nor 
as  an  outline  prepared  by  the  speaker  or  by  some 
hearer.  Yet  it  is  not  therefore  necessary  to  conclude 
that  the  address  is  a  free  composition  by  the  author 
of  Acts,  with  no  historical  basis.4  Unless  its  thought 
is  un-Pauline,  we  may  hold  that  the  author  had  some 
trustworthy  source.5  But  it  is  said  that  verses  38,  39 
are  "  sufficiently  un-Pauline  to  excite  surprise,"  and 
that  the  conception  of  justification  in  verse  39  "falls 
far  below  Paul's  character  and  controlling  idea  of 
justification  as  the  state  of  the  saved  man  who  is 
completely  reconciled    to  God  and   enjoys  peace  with 

1  Gal.  i.  2.  3  Comp.  Acts  xx.  7-1 1 ;  xxviii.  23. 

2  Appendix  III.  4  So  Pfleiderer,  Weiss,  Wendt,  and  McGiffert. 

5  So  Meyer,  4th  ed.,  and  Bethge. 


80  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

Him."1  But  Wendt,  though  he  attributes  the  address 
wholly  to  Luke,  holds  that  the  thought  of  these 
verses  is  "characteristically  Pauline,"  and  I  think  we 
must  agree  with  this.  These  thoughts  of  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  law  to  justify,  of  the  sufficiency  of  faith 
in  Jesus,  and  of  a  justification  which  consists  in  the 
forgiveness  of  all  sins,  are  surely  Pauline.  It  does 
not  then  appear  plain  that  this  Antiochian  address 
may  not  preserve  the  essential  thought  of  the  apostle. 
And  the  subsequent  narrative  of  events  in  Antioch 
contains  nothing  which  from  the  standpoint  of  Paul's 
letters  appears  objectionable. 

We  are  told  that  the  word  of  the  missionaries  was 
fruitful.  Many  Jews  and  proselytes  followed  Paul  and 
Barnabas  from  the  synagogue,  and  there  was  a  general 
request  that  they  should  speak  again  on  the  next  Sab- 
bath.2 This  they  did  with  the  result -that  the  Jews,  as 
a  whole,  rejected  them,  whereupon  they  turned  to  the 
Gentiles.  In  spite  of  the  common  hatred  of  the  Jews 
there  were  everywhere  proselytes  to  Judaism,  and  these 
furnished  the  most  receptive  soil  for  the  Gospel.  The 
reason  of  this  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  proselytes  had  not 
accepted  Judaism  as  a  mass  of  rites  and  ceremonies, 
but  rather  as  an  exalted  religious  and  moral  concep- 
tion of  God,  of  the  soul,  and  of  human  life. 

1  McGiffert,  The  Apostolic  Age,  p.  186. 
3  Acts  xiii.  42,  43. 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY   TOUR  8 1 

So  in  Antioch,  as  in  all  the  fields  where  Paul  labored, 
the  chief  success  of  the  Gospel  was  among  the  prose- 
lytes and  other  Gentiles.  The  impression  which  was 
made  by  Paul  and  Barnabas  upon  the  community  may 
be  inferred  from  the  hostility  of  the  Jews.  They  did 
not  rest  until  they  had  driven  the  missionaries  out  of 
their  borders ;  but  the  grounds  are  not  indicated  on 
which  they  secured  the  cooperation  of  the  Roman 
authorities  of  the  colony. 

How  long  Paul  and  Barnabas  had  been  in  the  city 
can  be  only  approximately  determined.  Since  the 
word  of  the  Lord  was  spread  abroad  through  all  the 
region1  before  they  left  Antioch,  we  must  think  of  a 
visit  of  at  least  several  months.  And  the  fact  that 
they  left  a  vigorous  church  also  implies  a  sojourn  of 
some  considerable  length. 

4.    The  Work  in  Iconium. 

Iconium  was  about  eighty  miles  southeast  of  Antioch, 
and  either  in  the  province  of  Phrygia  or  of  Lycaonia. 
According  to  the  earlier  and  popular  division,  it  was 
Phrygian ;  according  to  the  Roman  governmental 
organization,  it  was  Lycaonian.2  Luke  seems  not  to 
have  regarded  Iconium  as  a  city  of  Lycaonia.  He 
says    the    missionaries    came    to    Iconium,    and   from 

1  Acts  xiii.  49. 

2  Marquardt,  I.  368,  383;  Ramsay,  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
pp.  36-40. 

G 


82  THE   STUDENT'S  LIFE   OF   FAUL 

there  they  fled  to  the  cities  of  Lycaonia,  Lystra  and 
Derbe.  Thus,  by  implication,  Iconium  does  not 
belong  to  the  same  province  with    Lystra  and  Derbe. 

Iconium  was  an  important  city,  and  was  perhaps 
already  a  Roman  colony  like  Antioch,  for  it  was  colo- 
nized in  the  reign  of  Claudius  (41-54  a.d.).1 

The  labors  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  met  with  greater 
success  in  Iconium  than  in  Antioch.  A  great  multi- 
tude of  Jews  and  of  Greeks  believed.  It  is  not  said 
that  the  apostles  were  excluded  from  the  synagogue 
at  all  during  their  stay  in  Iconium,  and  the  statement 
that  a  great  multitude  of  Jews  believed  makes  it  pos- 
sible to  think  that  they  continued  their  preaching  in 
the  synagogue  until  the  onset  was  made  which  put  an 
end  to  their  work.  This  onset  was  planned  by  the 
unbelieving  Jews,  and  carried  out  by  them  with  the 
aid  of  such  Gentiles  as  they  had  been  able  to  incite 
against  the  missionaries,  the  same  method  of  persecu- 
tion that  we  find  later  in  Thessalonica  and  Ephesus. 
But  Paul  and  Barnabas  were  informed  of  the  plot  and 
fled.  Paul  counted  not  his  life  dear  to  himself  when  a 
plain  duty  called  him  to  face  great  perils,  but  when  no 
duty  commanded  him  to  stand,  he  simply  fled  for  his 
life,  as  any  sensible  man  should  do. 

It  is  in  the  narrative  of  Paul's  labor  in  Iconium,  and 
nowhere  else,  that  the  Book  of  Acts  calls  him  an  apostle.2 

1  Marquardt,  I.  364.  2  Acts  xiv.  4,  14. 


THE   FIRST  MISSIONARY  TOUR  83 

The  title  is  given  to  Barnabas  as  well  as  to  Paul.  Since 
the  author  elsewhere  restricts  this  title  to  the  original 
apostles,  it  is  conjectured  that  the  use  of  it  in  these  two 
passages  is  an  indication  that  he  followed  a  written 
account  of  this  tour,  and  derived  the  title  from  this 
source. 

5.    The  Work  in  Lystra  and  Derbe. 

The  Wolfe  expedition  1  to  Asia  Minor  and  the  sub- 
sequent investigations  of  Professor  Ramsay  2  agree  that 
Lystra  was  located  near  the  modern  village  of  Khatyn 
Serai,  which  is  about  eighteen  miles  southwest  from 
Iconium.  Professor  Sterrett  of  the  Wolfe  expedition 
and  Professor  Ramsay  also  agree  very  nearly  on  the 
site  of  Derbe.  Sterrett3  inclines  to  identify  the  ruins 
at  Bosola  and  Losta  (Zosta)  with  the  ancient  Derbe,  and 
Ramsay4  locates  it  about  four  miles  northwest  from 
Zosta,  at  Gudelissin.  The  ruins  of  Losta  and  Bosola 
are  about  sixteen  miles  southeast  from  Lystra,  as 
measured  on  the  Sterrett-Kiepert  map. 

There  is  no  reference  to  a  synagogue  in  either  Lystra 
or  Derbe,  and  therefore  we  infer  that  the  Jewish  ele- 
ment was  very  small  or  entirely  wanting.     Luke  records 

1  J.  R.  S.  Sterrett,  Papers  of  the  American  School  of  Classical  Studies 
at  Athens,  Vol.  III.  p.  142. 

2  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  47-54. 

8  Papers  of  the  American  School,  etc.,  Vol.  III.  pp.  22,  23. 
4  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  54-56. 


84  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF   PAUL 

two  incidents  of  the  sojourn  in  Lystra.  First,  the 
miracle  on  the  cripple,1  which  interests  him  chiefly 
because  of  its  consequences.  When  the  people  saw 
the  miracle,  they  thought  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  were 
gods,  as  the  people  of  Melita  argued  when  Paul  took 
no  harm  from  the  bite  of  the  viper.2  This  was  the 
pagan  inference  from  a  miracle,  while  the  Jewish  infer- 
ence was  that  the  one  who  wrought  the  miracle  was  a 
prophet.3 

The  sincerity  of  the  Lycaonian  belief  was  shown  in 
the  fact  that  the  people  proceeded  at  once  to  offer 
sacrifice  to  the  apostles.  Their  identification  of  Barna- 
bas with  Zeus  may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
worship  of  Zeus  was  especially  cultivated  among  them.4 
It  was  natural  to  identify  Paul  with  Hermes,  because 
Paul  seemed  be  the  spokesman  of  Barnabas  as  Hermes 
was  the  interpreter  and  spokesman  of  Zeus. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  miracle  on  the  cripple  did 
not  convince  the  people  of  the  truth  of  Paul's  doctrine, 
but  only  that  Paul  himself  was  supernatural.  Thus  it 
was  productive  of  evil  rather  than  good  as  far  as  the 
multitude  was  concerned.  The  work  in  Lystra  was 
finally  interrupted  by  Jewish  emissaries  from  Antioch 
and  Iconium.  They  aroused  popular  antagonism  to 
Paul,  in  what  way  we  are  not  told,  and  he  was  stoned 

1  Acts  xiv.  8-18.  8  John  ix.  17. 

2  Acts  xxviii.  6.  4  Acts  xiv.  13. 


THE  FIRST   MISSIONARY  TOUR  85 

in  the  streets  of  the  city  and  dragged  out  as  dead.  But 
he  had  only  been  stunned,  and  as  the  disciples  stood 
about  him  he  regained  consciousness.  The  fact  that  he 
was  able  to  go  forth  to  Derbe  on  the  following  day  is 
an  indication  that  no  bones  had  been  broken. 

Of  the  work  in  Derbe  Luke  says  only  that  many 
disciples  were  made.1  There  is  no  reference  made  to 
Jews  or  to  any  opposition.  Neither  is  there  any  clue 
to  the  length  of  time  spent  in  Derbe  or  in  Lystra.  It 
may  have  been  weeks ;  more  likely  it  was  months. 
From  Derbe,  as  also  from  Lystra,  came  one  convert 
whom  we  find  associated  with  Paul  in  later  years,  Gaius 
from  Derbe  and  Timothy  from  Lystra.2 

6.    The  Journey  Homezvard. 

From  Derbe  the  missionaries  might  easily  have 
reached  home  by  continuing  eastward  through  the 
great  pass  of  the  Taurus  Mountains,  but  they  chose 
to  go  back  by  the  way  which  they  had  come,  though 
that  required  them  to  face  the  enemies  from  whom 
they  had  recently  fled.  They  did  this  in  order  to 
strengthen  the  disciples  whom  they  had  won,  and 
provide  for  their  future  growth  in  the  Gospel.3  It  is 
probable  that  the  brethren  were  already  suffering  for 
their  faith,  since  it  is  expressly  said  that  the  apostles 
spoke   of   the   value   of   tribulations.4     In   addition   to 

1  Acts  xiv.  21.  8  Acts  xiv.  21,  22. 

2  Acts  xvi.  1 ;  xx.  4.  4  Acts  xiv.  22. 


86  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

teaching,  the  apostles  took  the  initiative  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  elders.  According  to  Luke  this  was  done  for 
each  church  that  they  had  established,  and  more  than 
one  elder  was  appointed  for  each.1  The  mode  of  ap- 
pointment is  not  indicated.2  It  is  plain  that  the  initia- 
tive was  taken  by  the  missionaries,  but  there  is  no 
ground  to  think  that  the  several  groups  of  believers 
had  no  part  in  the  appointment.  For  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas did  not  come  to  the  churches  with  any  official 
authority  for  organization  and  government.  Their  au- 
thority was  wholly  moral,  and  their  converts  were 
their  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  Lord. 

In  only  one  new  field  did  the  missionaries  preach 
on  the  return  journey,  and  that  was  Perga,  the  second 
city  in  Pamphylia.  They  passed  through  it  as  they 
entered  Asia,  coming  from  Cyprus,  but  at  that  time 
they  did  not  stop  to  preach.  The  visit  on  the  return 
journey  is  passed  over  by  Luke  as  though  it  had  no 
important  results,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  Paul 
came  again  to  the  city.  From  Perga  they  went  down 
to  the  port  of  Attalia,  and  thence  sailed  directly  to 
Antioch,  not  revisiting  Cyprus.3 

1  Acts  xiv.  23.  2  The  verb  is  x€lPOTOVe^v-    Comp.  2  Cor.  viii.  19. 

8  The  total  distance  travelled  by  the  missionaries  was  about  fourteen 
hundred  miles,  half  by  land  and  half  by  water.  A  conservative  estimate  of 
the  time  occupied  by  the  tour  is  perhaps  three  years.  Churches  were  estab- 
lished in  four  cities  at  least,  perhaps  in  more.  There  were  probably  Jews 
and  Gentiles  in  all  these  churches,  the  Gentiles  predominating. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Struggle  for  Gentile  Freedom 

i.  The  Problem  of  the  Sources. 

The  critical  meeting  between  Paul  and  the  church 
in  Jerusalem  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  Gentile  be- 
lievers to  the  law  is  sketched  by  the  apostle  in  his 
letter  to  the  Galatians.1  It  is  universally  agreed  that 
the  Book  of  Acts  also  deals  with  this  great  event  in 
Jerusalem,  but  it  is  uncertain  where  it  deals  with  it 
and  how  trustworthily  it  deals  with  it.  Some  identify 
the  journey  of  Acts  xi.  27-30  with  that  of  Gal.  ii.,2 
some  see  in  Acts  xv.  the  parallel  to  the  apostle's 
narrative  in  Galatians,3  and  others4  regard  Acts  xi. 
and  xv.  as  variations  of  one  and  the  same  story. 
Again,  they  who  regard  Acts  xv.  as  parallel  with 
Gal.  ii.  are  divided  in  their  view,  some  holding  that 
this  chapter  is  made  up  of  separate  documents,  one  of 
which  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  events  of  Gal.  ii.,5 
others  holding  that  the  entire  account  of  Acts  xv.  with 

1  Gal.  ii.  1-10. 

2  So  Ramsay,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  pp.  152-177. 

3  Among  others,  H.  J.  Holtzmann  and  Weiss. 

4  E.g.  McGiffert,  The  Apostolic  Age,  p.  171.  6  So  Clemen. 

87 


88  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

some  slight  and  unimportant  exceptions  is  a  historical 
account  of  that  which  Gal.  ii.  describes,1  and  others 
holding  that  the  chapter  concerns  the  events  of  Gal.  ii., 
but  that  it  modifies  facts  in  the  interest  of  church 
harmony.2 

But  the  visit  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  to  Jerusalem 
which  is  recorded  in  Acts  xi.  27-30  manifestly  belongs 
to  an  earlier  time  than  the  controversy  of  Gal.  ii. ; 
for  this  controversy  presupposes  a  long  and  success- 
ful activity  of  Paul  among  the  Gentiles.  Such  a  work 
followed  the  year  spent  in  Antioch,  but  did  not  pre- 
cede it.  Then  the  mission  of  Acts  xi.  was  primarily, 
if  not  exclusively,  philanthropic,  while  that  of  Gal.  ii. 
was  as  exclusively  religious.  It  is  quite  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  same  visit  had  two  so  totally 
different  aspects,  and  that  two  writers  kept  so  com- 
pletely each  to  one  aspect  of  the  visit,  betraying  no 
knowledge  of  the  other  aspect.  Nor  is  it  possible  to 
regard  Acts  xi.  and  xv.  as  varying  accounts  of  the 
same  visit.  They  have  nothing  in  common  except 
that  in  both  cases  Paul  and  Barnabas  started  from 
Antioch  and  went  to  Jerusalem.  The  occasion,  pur- 
pose, and  results  are  wholly  different.  One  cannot 
claim,  it  is  true,  that  the  author  of  Acts  is  above  criti- 
cism, but  his  methods  justify  us  in  believing  that  he 
handled  his  sources  with  care  and  intelligence.    More- 

1  So  Pfleiderer.  2  So  Weizsacker. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  GENTILE  FREEDOM     89 

over,  it  is  conceded  that  from  the  thirteenth  chapter  for- 
ward the  author  drew  from  exceptionally  good  sources, 
and  this  makes  it  difficult  to  believe  that  in  chapter 
xv.  he  unconsciously  offers  us  a  second  account  of  a 
visit  to  Jerusalem  which  he  had  already  described. 
It  is  said  that  Gal.  ii.  10  seems  to  imply  that  a 
double  purpose  was  fulfilled  by  the  journey,  and  that 
Paul  was  the  bearer  of  alms  as  well  as  the  defender 
of  Gentile  Christianity.  But  this  interpretation  will 
not  do.  For  the  remembrance  of  the  poor  of  which 
Paul  speaks  in  Gal.  ii.  10  was  surely  a  fulfilment  of 
the  exhortation  of  the  leaders,  James,  Peter,  and  John, 
and  therefore  was  not  prior  to  that  exhortation. 

A  comparison  of  Acts  xv.  and  Gal.  ii.  brings  out 
two  classes  of  facts.  In  the  first  place,  certain  funda- 
mental points  of  agreement  are  obvious,  which  con- 
strain us  to  the  conclusion  of  most  recent  scholars 
that  the  narrative  of  Acts  xv.  concerns  the  event  of 
which  Paul  speaks  in  Gal.  ii.  1-10.1  Thus  in  Acts 
as  in  Galatians  the  question  which  takes  Paul  to 
Jerusalem  is  the  relation  of  the  Gentile  believers  to 
the  law.2  In  Acts  as  in  Galatians  the  position  of 
Paul  is  recognized  by  the  leaders  in  Jerusalem.3  In 
Acts  as  in  Galatians  nothing  is  imparted  to  Paul  as 
regards   the   terms   on   which    salvation   is    offered   to 

1  So  Pfleiderer,  Weizsacker,  Wendt,  and  H.  J.  Holtzmann. 

2  Acts  xv.  1;  Gal.  ii.  2.  8  Acts  xv.  10,  24;   Gal.  ii.  9. 


90  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

the  Gentiles.1  In  Acts  as  in  Galatians  it  is  assumed 
that  the  position  of  Jewish  believers  remains  un- 
changed. The  decree  from  Jerusalem,  according  to 
Acts,  is  for  Gentile  believers ; 2  and  what  Paul  con- 
tended for  in  Jerusalem,  according  to  his  letter,  was 
the  freedom  of  Gentile  believers,  not  of  Jewish  be- 
lievers. These  features  of  agreement  are  manifestly 
fundamental,  and  forbid  the  separation  of  Gal.  ii.  and 
Acts  xv. 

But  still  the  narrative  in  Acts  is  not  without  diffi- 
culties when  compared  with  Paul's  own  account  in 
Galatians,  though  there  are  some  differences  which 
ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  difficulties.  Thus,  ac- 
cording to  Galatians,  Paul  went  up  to  Jerusalem  by 
revelation,  while  according  to  Acts  he  went  by  the 
appointment  of  the  church  in  Antioch.3  But  it  is 
obviously  unnecessary  to  see  any  conflict  here.  The 
two  reports  supplement  each  other.  In  the  epistle 
to  the  Galatians,  where  Paul  is  showing  the  indepen- 
dence of  his  Gospel,  it  is  natural  that  he  should  refer 
to  the  inner  impulse  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  rather  than 
to  the  action  of  the  church.  Again,  the  silence  of 
Acts  in  regard  to  Titus,  who  was  so  important  a 
figure  in  the  conference  according  to  Gal.  ii.,  may 
be   regarded    simply   as   a    part   of    its    plan   to   give 

1  Acts  xv.  31;  Gal.  ii.  6.  2  Acts  xv.  23. 

8  Gal.  ii.  2;   Acts  xv,  2. 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   GENTILE   FREEDOM  91 

a  general  sketch  of  events.  It  deals  with  the  public 
gatherings  and  the  issue,  but  not  with  details.  The 
private  conference  of  Paul  with  the  leaders  in  Jeru- 
salem, of  which  Gal.  ii.  speaks,  is  not  mentioned 
in  Acts,  but  neither  does  the  narrative  in  Acts 
exclude  it. 

But  while  these  differences  are  not  serious,  there  are 
other  points  which  cannot  be  easily  explained.  Thus, 
according  to  Paul  in  Galatians,  there  was  at  first  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  between  Paul  and  the  leaders.  They 
did  not  give  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  until  they 
had  perceived  the  grace  that  was  given  to  him.1  It  is 
implied  that  they  did  not  at  first  agree  with  him,  but 
were  constrained  to  endorse  his  work  by  the  fact  that 
God  had  manifestly  endorsed  it.  But  of  this  alienation 
of  the  leaders  from  Paul  and  their  subsequent  approach 
to  him,  there  is  no  trace  in  Acts.  Peter  is  on  Paul's 
side  from  the  first,  and  James  agrees  with  Peter.2 
There  is  perfect  harmony  between  the  apostles  of  the 
circumcision  and  the  apostle  of  the  uncircumcision. 
But  this  is  not  the  impression  which  is  made  by  Paul's 
impassioned  words  in  Gal.  ii.  He  is  on  one  side  and 
the  apostles  are  on  the  other.  He  contends  for  Gen- 
tile freedom,  and  it  is  evident  that  he  does  so  with  all 
his  might.  But  there  is  no  need  for  this  contention  if 
the  elder  apostles  are  already  in  perfect  harmony  with 

1  Gal.  ii.  9.  2  Acts  xv.  7-1 1. 


92  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

him.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  experience  which 
Peter  had  in  Joppa  and  in  the  house  of  Cornelius 
must  necessarily  have  led  the  apostles  to  admit  the 
freedom  of  Gentile  believers.  That  was  an  isolated 
case.  Peter  did  not  draw  from  it  the  inference  that 
the  Messianic  salvation  was  to  be  freely  offered  to  all 
Gentiles.  No  one  drew  such  an  inference.  The  atti- 
tude of  the  Jewish  church  in  Jerusalem  seems  not  to 
have  been  seriously  affected  by  it.  And  therefore, 
when  Paul  came  up  to  Jerusalem  to  lay  before  the 
church  the  Gospel  which  he  preached  among  the  Gen- 
tiles, he  met  with  opposition.  Of  this  there  is  no  trace 
in  Acts,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  and  this  fact  has 
been  regarded  as  unfavorable  to  the  character  of  Luke 
as  a  historian.  He  is  said  to  be  a  harmonizer,  who 
paints  the  early  history  of  the  Church  in  a  rosier  light 
than  the  facts  warrant.1  It  must  be  admitted  that  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  Acts  affords  not  a  little  ground  for 
this  charge.  And  yet  there  remains  one  word  more  to 
be  said  for  Luke.  The  scene  described  in  Galatians  is 
stormy ;  that  of  Acts  is  peaceful.  But  that  of  Gala- 
tians is  private,  and  there  is  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
our  supposing  that,  in  the  public  meeting  which  fol- 
lowed, Peter  and  James,  who,  according  to  Paul  him- 
self, had  given  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  in  the 
private    interview,   now   came  forward   in   defence   of 

1  Weizsacker,  p.  175, 


THE   STRUGGLE    FOR   GENTILE   FREEDOM  93 

Paul's  position.  They  were  bound  by  their  handshake 
to  confess  before  the  church  that  Paul's  Gospel  to  the 
Gentiles  was  a  true  Gospel,  and  just  that  is  what  they 
do,  according  to  Acts. 

There  is  another  point  of  serious  divergence  between 
Gal.  ii.  and  Acts  xv.  Paul  says  that  they  who  were  of 
repute  imparted  nothing  to  him,  while  the  author  of 
Acts  tells  of  four  necessary  things  which  were  laid 
upon  the  Gentile  converts.1  Some  scholars  feel  that 
these  statements  are  in  absolute  conflict,2  and  they 
naturally  reject  the  account  of  Acts.  Some  think  that 
such  a  decree  as  that  of  which  Luke  speaks  was 
never  promulgated,3  and  others  that  it  was  not  pro- 
mulgated at  the  time  of  the  conference  in  Jerusalem 
and  in  the  circumstances  there  set  forth.4  This  lat- 
ter question  is  the  only  one  which  can  be  fairly  raised, 
for  there  is  no  tangible  argument  in  support  of  the 
view  that  the  decree  is  purely  fictitious. 

Now,  much  depends  upon  the  meaning  of  Paul  when 
he  said  that  the  leaders  "imparted  nothing  to  him."5 
Plainly  this  statement  must  be  understood  in  harmony 
with  the  context.  It  is  really  defined  by  the  positive 
affirmation  that  follows.     They  imparted  nothing  to  me, 

1  Gal.  ii.  6;  Acts  xv.  22-29. 

2  For  example,  Weizsacker,  Pfleiderer,  and  McGiffert. 
8  So  Volkmar,  Weiss,  and  Pfleiderer. 

*  So,  e.g.  Weizsacker.  5  Gal.  ii.  6. 


94  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

Paul  says,  but  gave  us  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  that 
is,  they  recognized  the  Gospel  which  we  preach  to  the 
Gentiles.  Accordingly,  the  words  "they  imparted 
nothing  to  me"  signify  that  they  did  not  interfere  with 
his  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  They  did  not  in  any  wise 
alter  the  conditions  on  which  he  offered  the  Gospel  to 
the  Gentiles.  In  other  words,  they  recognized  his  author- 
ity to  preach  and  to  found  churches.  But  if  this  be  the 
meaning  of  the  words  of  Paul  in  Galatians,  then  plainly 
it  cannot  be  said  that  the  language  of  Acts  is  incon- 
sistent with  it.  For  the  four  prohibitions  which  are 
laid  upon  the  Gentile  converts  in  Acts  xv.  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  salvation  of  Gentiles,  but  only  with  their 
association  with  Jewish  believers.1  The  conflict  there- 
fore between  Galatians  and  Acts  at  this  point  seems  to 
be,  after  all,  an  artificial  one. 

2.    The  False  Brethren? 

When  Paul  returned  from  the  first  tour  which  he 
made  from  Antioch,  he  found  the  church  in  that  city 
deeply  agitated  over  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
law  to  Gentile  believers.  Jewish  Christians  from  Jeru- 
salem declared  that  the  observance  of  the  law  was  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  salvation.3  And  there  were  facts 
which  seemed  to  support   the   position  of   these  men. 

1  Comp.  Wendt  in  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts,  7th  ed.,  pp.  331-341. 

2  Gal.  ii.  4.  8  Acts  xv.  1. 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   GENTILE   FREEDOM  95 

Thus,  in  the  first  place,  Jesus  had  not  formally  abro- 
gated the  law  for  His  disciples.  On  the  contrary,  He 
had  used  words  which  might  be  thought  to  teach  its 
perpetual  existence.  He  said  that  He  came  not  to 
destroy  the  law  but  to  fulfil  it,  and  that  no  jot  of  it 
should  pass  away  till  all  things  were  accomplished. 
Then,  in  the  second  place,  Jesus  had  observed  the  law, 
keeping  the  Passover,  paying  the  temple  tax,  and  bid- 
ding the  healed  leper  offer  the  prescribed  gifts.  And 
third,  the  disciples  in  Jerusalem,  including  the  apostles, 
had  not  separated  themselves  from  the  temple.  All 
this  seemed  to  favor  the  view  that  when  Gentiles  were 
admitted  to  the  Christian  Church,  they  must  come  in 
through  the  door  of  Moses.  According  to  Acts  this 
was  the  view  of  the  apostles  prior  to  Peter's  experience 
in  Joppa  and  Caesarea.  It  required  a  vision  to  con- 
vince him  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  to 
prepare  him  to  go  to  the  house  of  the  Gentile  Corne- 
lius. They  also  who  were  most  zealous  for  the  proc- 
lamation of  the  Gospel  at  first  confined  their  efforts  to 
the  Jews.1 

Thus  there  was  not  a  little  in  the  life  of  Jesus  and  in 
the  history  of  the  Church  which  seemed  to  favor  the 
position  of  the  men  who  said  that  the  Gentiles  must  be 
circumcised  if  they  were  to  be  saved.  When  Paul  and 
Barnabas  came  from  their  tour,  they  found  these  "  false 

1  Acts  xi.  19. 


g6  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

brethren "  or  Judaizers  in  Antioch,  who  had  come  in 
to  spy  out  the  liberty  which  the  Gentile  believers  had 
in  Jesus  Christ  and  bring  them  under  bondage  to  the 
law.  How  long  they  had  been  there  is  not  plain,  but 
they  had  acquired  considerable  influence  and  were  mak- 
ing a  deep  impression.  It  does  not  appear  whether  any 
of  the  Gentile  Christians  had  allowed  themselves  to  be 
circumcised.  The  Judaizers  withstood  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas so  strongly  that  the  church  thought  it  necessary 
to  send  a  committee  to  Jerusalem  regarding  the  matter. 

3.    The  Compromise. 

The  gathering  in  Jerusalem  was  not  an  ecclesiastical 
council,  with  power  to  legislate  for  the  various  bodies 
represented,  but  it  was  rather  a  friendly  conference  of 
a  younger  church  with  an  elder  one.  The  church  in 
Jerusalem  did  not  summon  the  church  of  Antioch,  but 
the  church  of  Antioch  acted  on  its  own  motive.  It 
took  a  practical  question  to  the  mother  church,  and 
asked  for  counsel.  In  so  doing  it  did  not  assume  that 
the  Jerusalem  church  had  any  other  authority  than 
such  as  belonged  to  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  its 
individual  members. 

This  meeting  was  of  great  importance,  though  this 
is  exaggerated,  I  think,  when  it  is  said  that  the  future 
of    Christianity  depended  upon  it,1  and  that  the  ques- 

1  Pfleiderer,  pp.  46,  47. 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   GENTILE   FREEDOM  97 

tion  to  be  decided  was  whether  Christianity  was  to 
be  a  petty  sect  or  a  universal  religion.1  To  assume 
that  it  was  possible  for  Christianity  to  be  a  petty 
Jewish  sect  is  to  deny  the  fundamental  claims  of 
Jesus.  The  importance  of  the  conference  in  Paul's 
view  is  apparent  from  his  words  in  Gal.  ii.,  when  he 
says  that  he  laid  his  Gospel  before  the  leaders  in 
Jerusalem,  "lest  by  any  means  I  should  be  running 
or  had  run  in  vain."  We  must  hold  with  Weizsacker 
that  Paul  does  not  express  here  a  doubt  about  the 
stability  of  his  work  among  the  Gentiles,  but  only 
in  regard  to  his  success  in  Jerusalem.  It  would  seem 
as  though  he  had  run  in  vain  if  he  should  fail  to 
secure  the  recognition  of  the  Gentile  work  on  the 
part  of  the  Jewish  church. 

The  course  of  events  at  the  conference  cannot  be 
made  out  in  detail.  In  view  of  Gal.  ii.  we  must  hold 
that  the  hour  of  supreme  importance  was  that  in 
which  Paul  met  the  leaders  privately  and  secured 
from  them  the  recognition  of  his  Gospel.  It  is  this 
alone  of  which  he  speaks  in  the  epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians.  Whatever  other  conferences  there  may  have 
been,  they  were  of  secondary  importance  in  Paul's 
judgment.  The  right  hand  of  fellowship  from  James, 
Peter,  and  John  was  the  essential  thing.  As  these 
leaders  went,  the  entire  church  would  go. 

1  Renan,  Si.  Paul,  p.  58. 
H 


gS  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

The  argument  which  won  in  this  private  confer- 
ence was  the  fact  that  the  blessing  of  God  mani- 
festly rested  upon  Paul's  work.  There  was  Titus, 
a  converted  Greek  and  a  living  witness  that  Paul's 
Gospel  had  been  owned  of  God.  As  Peter  could 
not  resist  what  he  saw  in  the  home  of  Cornelius,  so 
the  apostles  could  not  deny  the  force  of  the  argu- 
ment which  was  afforded  by  Titus.  They  saw  that 
Paul  had  been  intrusted  with  the  Gospel  of  the  un- 
circumcision ;  they  perceived  the  grace  that  was  given 
unto  him.1  They  perceived  it  in  what  he  had  done,2 
in  the  work  of  which  Titus  was  an  illustration.  And 
as  Titus  had  manifestly  been  accepted  of  God,  though 
uncircumcised,  Paul  successfully  contended  that  he 
should  not  be  circumcised  now  to  gratify  the  con- 
servative Judaizing  element  in  the  church.3 

The  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  though  it  mentions 
only  a  private  conference,  implies  at  least  one  other. 
For  the  great  question  of  the  relation  of  the  Gentile 
believers  to  the  law  of  Moses  must  of  necessity  come 
before  the  whole  church :  it  could  not  be  fully  set- 
tled in  a  private  conference  with  the  leaders.  There- 
fore the  account  of  a  public  meeting  which  we  have 
in  Acts4  does  not  come  unexpectedly.     Again,  it  was 

1  Gal.  ii.  7,  9.  2  Comp.  Weizsacker,  p.  164. 

8  This  is  also  the  view  of  Weizsacker,  Hort,  Conybeare  and  Howson. 

4  Acts  xv.  6-29. 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   GENTILE   FREEDOM  99 

natural  that  Peter  should  take  the  initiative  in  this 
conference,  as  Acts  relates,  for  he  had  had  an  expe- 
rience in  Caesarea  which  in  the  light  of  what  Paul 
had  said  in  the  private  conference  must  take  on  new 
meaning.  It  is  also  in  accord  with  what  we  know 
of  James1  when  Acts  represents  him  as  bringing 
the  discussion  to  a  close.  He  was  the  first  of  the 
three  "  pillars."  The  fact  that  he  was  a  brother  of 
Jesus  seems  to  have  had  more  weight  than  the  fact 
of  apostleship. 

The  proposition  attributed  to  James,  that  the 
church  in  Jerusalem  should  write  to  the  Gentile 
believers  asking  that  they  abstain  from  four  things, 
is  in  line  with  what  Paul  himself  says  of  James.  For 
he  says  that  the  controversy  in  Antioch  between  him- 
self and  Peter  was  precipitated  by  certain  persons 
from  James,2  who  led  Peter  to  withdraw  from  contact 
with  Gentile  believers.  This  fact  shows  us  a  man 
who  would  limit  the  contact  of  Jewish  and  Gentile 
Christians  according  to  the  degree  in  which  Gen- 
tile believers  observed  certain  Jewish  rites,  and  that 
is  the  man  who  proposes  the  terms  of  fellowship  in 
Acts  xv. 

The  proposition  attributed  to  James  includes  three, 
perhaps  four,  of  the  seven  Noachian  prohibitions, 
which  according  to  Jewish  teachers  every  Gentile  who 

1  Gal.  i.  19;  ii.  9;  Acts  xxi.  18.  2  Gal.  ii.  12. 


IOO  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

dwelt  among  the  Jews  must  observe.1  They  did  not 
pertain  to  proselytes  simply,  or  as  such,  but  to  all 
foreigners,  and  were,  theoretically,  the  basis  of  inter- 
course. The  four  prohibitions  of  James  are :  first,  to 
abstain  from  pollutions  of  idols,  such  as  eating  meat 
that  had  been  offered  in  sacrifice  to  an  idol ;  second, 
to  abstain  from  fornication,  by  which  term  is  probably 
meant  the  intermarriage  of  near  relatives  which  the 
Jews  counted  as  fornication  ; 2  third,  to  abstain  from 
that  which  is  strangled ;  and,  fourth,  to  abstain  from 
blood.  These  last  two  prohibitions  appear  to  be  modi- 
fications of  the  seventh  Noachian  commandment,  not 
to  eat  living  flesh,  that  is,  flesh  with  the  blood  in  it. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  these  prohibitions  already 
rested  upon  proselytes  in  the  Dispersion,  and  that  the 
proposition  of  James  contemplated  an  extension  of 
their  observance  to  all  Gentile  converts.  But  it  is  an 
error  to  suppose  that  the  imposition  of  these  cere- 
monial observances  upon  the  Gentile  converts  marked 
them  as  "  less  honorable  and  less  pleasing  to  God " 
than  the  Jewish  believers.3  They  confessedly  did  not 
affect  the  Gentiles'  standing  before  God  in  any  wise : 
they  were  simply  a  basis  of  intercourse  with  Jewish 
believers.     If  they  had  set  a  stigma  upon  the  Gentile 

1  Schiirer,  II.  568,  569;  Weber,  253,  254. 

2  Comp.  Renan,  p.  68;   Wendt  in  Meyer's  Commentary. 
8  See  McGiffert,  p.  212. 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR  GENTILE   FREEDOM  IOI 

believers,  it  would  scarcely  have  been  said  that  these 
"rejoiced  for  the  consolation."1  And,  moreover,  it  is 
impossible  to  suppose  that  James,  who  recognized  Paul's 
Gospel  and  indorsed  his  work  among  the  Gentiles, 
straightway  went  before  the  church  and  proposed  a 
measure  that  put  dishonor  upon  the  Gentile  believers. 

The  proposition  of  James  was  indorsed  by  the 
church  in  Jerusalem,  embodied  in  a  letter  and  sent  to 
Antioch  by  the  hand  of  Judas  and  Barsabbas.2  In 
holding  the  historical  character  of  this  decree,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  hold  that  every  detail  of  the  letter 
is  historical.  It  seems  doubtful  whether  the  church 
in  Jerusalem  commended  Paul  and  Barnabas  to  the 
church  in  Antioch,  and  said  that  they  had  hazarded 
their  lives  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Paul  and 
Barnabas  were  at  home  in  Antioch,  and  the  church 
there  knew  of  their  work  far  better  than  did  the 
church  in  Jerusalem.     But  this  point  is  incidental. 

This  decree,  as  Luke  calls  it,3  was  really  a  com- 
promise. The  necessary  things  of  which  it  speaks 
were  necessary  if  there  was  to  be  fellowship  between 
Gentile  and  Jewish  believers.  They  were  necessary 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Jerusalem  church.  The 
decree,  then,  was  conditional,  or,  as  we  have  said,  was 
a  compromise  measure. 

1  Acts  xv.  31.  2  Acts  xv.  22. 

8  Acts  xvi.  4. 


102  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

This  compromise  was  not  in  the  sphere  of  the  essen- 
tial but  of  the  unessential.  The  liberty  of  the  Gentile 
believers  in  regard  to  the  law  of  Moses  was  recog- 
nized. Nothing  was  imparted  to  Paul  as  far  as  his 
fundamental  position  was  concerned.  The  purpose  of 
the  Judaizers  or  false  brethren  was  repudiated.  But 
the  mother  church  thought  it  necessary  that  the  Gen- 
tile believers  in  Antioch  and  vicinity  should  make  cer- 
tain concessions  to  their  Jewish  brethren.  These  were 
not  ethical,  but  ceremonial,  and  they  were  in  the  interest 
of  fellowship.  The  decree  therefore  did  not  touch  the 
specific  question  which  the  church  in  Antioch  had 
brought  to  Jerusalem,  but  was  concerned  wholly  with  an 
incidental  point.  The  answer  of  the  Jerusalem  church 
to  the  main  issue  was  given  in  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship which  Peter,  James,  and  John  extended  to  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  and  it  was  implied  also  in  the  addresses 
of  Peter  and  James  before  the  church.  The  cause  of 
Gentile  freedom  as  represented  by  Paul  and  Barnabas 
was  triumphant. 

4.    The  Subsequent  History  of  the  Decree. 

When  the  letter  from  Jerusalem  was  read  in  Antioch 
the  church  rejoiced  for  the  consolation.1  Its  Gentile 
majority  found  that  the  mother  church  agreed  with  it 
touching  the  essential  thing,  and  it  was  willing,  in  the 
interest  of  peace,  to  regard  Jewish  convictions  on  the 

1  Acts  xv.  31. 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   GENTILE   FREEDOM  1 03 

points  which  were  specified  in  the  letter.  According  to 
Luke  this  letter  was  intended  not  only  for  Gentile  Chris- 
tians in  Antioch,  but  also  for  those  in  Syria  and  Cilicia,1 
and  it  is  said  that  when  Paul  and  Silas  went  on  the 
second  missionary  tour  from  Antioch  they  took  the  letter 
with  them.2  There  is  no  trace  of  it  in  any  church  that 
was  founded  by  Paul  alone.3  Paul  never  refers  to  it  in 
his  epistles,  and  never  gives  his  Gentile  converts  in- 
structions similar  to  those  of  the  decree.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  told  the  Corinthian  converts  that  they  might 
eat  meat  that  had  been  offered  to  idols,  unless  in  so 
doing  they  caused  a  brother  to  stumble,4  and  we  may 
assume  that  he  took  the  same  position  with  reference 
to  the  other  prohibitions.  And  yet  it  must  be  admitted 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  terms  of  the  decree  which 
was  not  covered  by  Paul's  principle  to  become  a  Jew  to 
the  Jews.  If  there  was  a  prospect  that  fellowship  with 
Jewish  believers  would  be  promoted  by  the  observance 
of  the  Jerusalem  letter  by  Gentile  Christians,  then  there 
was  no  reason  why  Paul  should  not  lay  its  observance 
upon  his  Gentile  converts.  The  fact  that  he  never 
refers  to  it  in  his  letters  is  an  indication  that  it  did  not 
prove  to  be  of  practical  value,  and  that  it  soon  fell 
into  neglect ;  but  it  is  not  good  evidence  that  he  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  it. 

1  Acts  xv.  23.  8  Weiss,  Einleitung,  p.  143,  note  3. 

2  Acts  xvi.  4.  4  1  Cor.  viii. 


104  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

The  visit  of  Peter  to  Antioch  soon  after  the  council 
in  Jerusalem  shows  that  there  was  no  virtue  in  the 
letter  to  bring  Jewish  and  Gentile  believers  together  in 
a  peaceful  fellowship,  at  least  in  that  city.  Peter  came 
clown  to  Antioch,  and  in  the  spirit  of  his  interview  with 
Paul,  in  which  he  had  given  him  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship,  he  ate  with  the  Gentile  believers.1  This 
was  a  logical  step  for  him  to  take,  but  it  was  open  to 
criticism  by  the  Jewish  church.  The  elder  apostles  had 
not  changed  their  position  in  regard  to  Jewish  believers 
through  their  interview  with  Paul.  They  recognized 
him  as  the  apostle  of  the  uncircumcision,  but  they  re- 
mained the  apostles  of  the  circumcision,  and  the  law 
from  which  the  Gentile  believers  are  free  still  rested 
upon  the  Jew.  It  was  the  observance  of  this  Jewish 
law  by  Jews  that  James  had  in  mind  when  he  sent 
.certain  men  down  to  Antioch.  From  his  point  of  view 
I  Peter  was  in  error  in  eating  with  Gentile  Christians. 
The  letter  of  the  Jerusalem  church  did  not  authorize  such 
an  act,  for  in  that  case  James  could  have  said  nothing, 
and  Peter  would  not  have  been  embarrassed.  It  con- 
templated a  certain  measure  of  intercourse,  but  not 
eating  together,  which  was  a  mark  of  perfect  ceremonial 
equality.2  Hence  Peter's  act,  though  right  in  principle 
and  in  line  with  his  recognition  of  Paul's  work,  was 
unlawful   if  judged   by  the   Jewish  statutes  regarding 

1  Gal.  ii.  12.  2  Mark  ii.  l6;   Acts  xi.  3. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  GENTILE  FREEDOM     105 

clean  and  unclean.  This  was  brought  home  to  him, 
and  he  retreated  from  the  high  position  which  his 
Christian  feeling  and  Christian  principle  had  led  him 
to  take.  Barnabas  and  others  followed,  and  the  line 
of  cleavage  between  Jewish  and  Gentile  believers  was 
clearly  drawn.  Thus  was  manifest  the  weakness  of  the 
Jerusalem  compromise,  and  an  opportunity  was  given 
Paul  to  point  out  the  way  of  Christian  progress,  for,  as 
Weizsacker1  says,  the  day  in  Antioch  leads  further 
than  the  day  in  Jerusalem.  This  opportunity  Paul  did 
not  fail  to  improve.2  There  is  no  longer  on  his  part 
a  silent  toleration  of  legalism  for  Jewish  believers, 
but  he  smites  it  root  and  branch.  Justification  by  faith 
in  Christ  absolutely  excludes  works  of  the  law.  Free- 
dom from  the  law  is  not  regarded  as  a  concession  to 
Gentile  weakness,  but  as  the  true  Christian  position. 

What  effect  Paul's  words  had  upon  Peter  we  are 
not  told.  Some  scholars  think  that  the  purpose  of 
the  letter  to  the  Galatians  demanded  that  if  Paul 
had  secured  an  actual  victory  over  Peter,  he  should 
announce  it,3  while  others  affirm  with  equal  assurance 
that  the  whole  force  of  the  argument  in  Galatians 
requires  us  to  hold  that  Paul's  rebuke  of  Peter  was 
successful.4     This  latter   statement   appears  to   be  un- 

1  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  169. 

2  Gal.  ii.  14-21.  3  So  Weizsacker,  McGiffert,  etc. 
4  So,  e.g.  Ramsay,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  161. 


106  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

warrantable,  for  Paul's  aim  in  Galatians  is  to  show 
the  independence  of  his  Gospel,  not  to  show  that 
he  always  made  the  elder  apostles  think  as  he  did. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  ground  for  the  affir- 
mation that  Paul's  reproof  embittered  Peter  most 
deeply,  and  that  the  Judaizing  work  sprang  out  of 
that  embitterment.1  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
Paul's  address  in  Antioch  strengthened  the  opposition, 
for  it  brought  out  into  sharp  relief  the  difference 
between  him  and  the  adherents  of  the  law,  but  there 
is  no  proof  that  Peter  either  at  this  time  or  later 
regarded  the  observance  of  the  law  as  necessary  to 
salvation. 

1  So  Volkmar,  Paulus,  p.  20. 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  Introduction  of  the  Gospel  into  Europe 

I.    The  Inception  of  the  European   Tour. 

Paul  and  Barnabas  returned  from  the  conference 
in  Jerusalem  and  continued  their  work  in  Antioch, 
teaching  and  preaching  with  many  others.1  It  was  in 
this  period  that  Peter  visited  Antioch,  and  the  line 
was  drawn  between  Jewish  and  Gentile  believers, 
which  led  to  Paul's  vigorous  protest  and  to  his  vindi- 
cation of  every  Christian's  freedom  from  the  law, 
Jew  no  less  than  Gentile.  It  is  impossible,  as  Weiz- 
sacker  and  others  hold,  to  put  this  controversy  any- 
where else  than  soon  after  the  conference  in  Jerusalem. 
The  fact  that  there  were  many  teachers  and  preachers 
in  Antioch  besides  Paul  and  Barnabas  witnesses  to 
the  rapid  growth  and  extent  of  the  church,  and  thus 
explains  why  Peter  desired  to  visit  it,  and  why  James 
wished  to  keep  in  close  touch  with  it.2 

After  some  time  spent  in  Antioch  Paul  proposed 
to  Barnabas  that  they  should  visit  the  churches  which 
they  had  established.3     There  is   no  evidence   that  he 

1  Gal.  ii.  II;  Acts  xv.  35.  2  Gal.  ii.  12.  3  Acts  xv.  36. 

107 


108  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

thought  at  this  time  of  new  fields  of  labor.  His  one 
purpose  was  to  visit  the  churches  of  the  first  mission- 
ary tour,  and  the  new  work  which  came  to  him  as  he 
fulfilled  this  purpose  was  a  providential  appointment. 

It  may  be  noticed  that  neither  at  this  time  nor  at  any 
other  did  the  church  of  Antioch,  as  such,  have  anything 
to  do  with  Paul's  tours.  Certain  prophets  in  that 
church  set  him  apart  to  the  work  among  the  Gentiles, 
but  as  far  as  we  know  the  church  never  gave  him 
suggestion  or  support.  It  had  no  sort  of  official 
relation  to  him  as  a  missionary. 

Paul  summoned  Barnabas  to  go  with  him,  but 
finally  took  Silas.  The  two  old  friends  and  colabor- 
ers  were  alienated  over  the  question  of  taking  Mark.1 
Who  was  the  more  to  be  blamed  we  cannot  say. 
From  what  we  know  of  the  character  of  the  two 
men  at  this  time  we  may  believe  that  there  was  more 
of  gentleness  and  sympathy  in  the  judgment  of  Bar- 
nabas than  in  that  of  Paul.  We  gather  from  Paul's 
own  letters  that  he  was  not  permanently  alienated 
from  Barnabas.  For  when  he  sends  Mark's  saluta- 
tion to  the  church  in  Colossae2  (a  proof  that  he  was 
on  good  terms  with  Mark3),  he  introduces  and  com- 
mends him  by  saying  that  he  is  a  cousin  of  Barnabas. 
The  fact  that  the  Colossians  are  assumed  to  know 
who   Barnabas  is,  suggests  that  he  may  have  worked 

1  Acts  xv.  37-39.  2  Col.  iv.  10.  8  Comp.  2  Tim.  iv.  II. 


THE  GOSrEL   IN   EUROPE  109 

there  or  in  that  neighborhood,  and  this  would  imply 
that  he  was  on  friendly  terms  with  Paul,  for  it  was 
Paul  who  had  introduced  the  Gospel  into  all  that 
region.  Again,  in  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians, 
Paul  speaks  of  Barnabas  in  a  way  that  is  scarcely 
consistent  with  the  idea  that  they  were  deeply  alienated 
from  each  other.1 

2.    Seeking  New  Fields. 

The  narrative  of  Luke  passes  rapidly  over  the  tour  of 
the  churches  by  Paul  and  Silas.  It  mentions  churches 
in  Syria  and  Cilicia,  of  whose  establishment  Luke  does 
not  inform  us,  but  which  we  understand  in  the  light  of 
what  Paul  says  in  Galatians.2  The  account  in  Acts 
refers  by  name  to  Lystra  because  Paul  took  Timothy 
with  him  from  that  city.3  Iconium  and  Antioch  are  not 
mentioned  by  name,  but  were  doubtless  visited.  When 
Paul  had  visited  the  churches,  he  started  for  a  new 
field;  and  being  in  Antioch  of  Pisidia  it  was  natural 
that  his  thought  should  be  turned  to  the  province 
of  Asia.  There,  but  two  hundred  miles  west  of 
Pisidian  Antioch,  was  Ephesus,  the  chief  city  of  the 
whole  land,  and  since  Paul's  habit  was  to  seek  the 
great  cities  as  the  fields  of  his  evangelistic  labors,  it 
was  most  natural  that  he  should  now  turn  his  thought 
toward  Asia  and  Ephesus.      But  the  Holy  Spirit  for- 

1  1  Cor.  ix.  6.  2  Gal.  i.  21-23.  8  Acts  xvi.  1. 


HO  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF  PAUL 

bade  this  course.1  YWare  not  told  how  this  restraining 
influence  of  the  Spirit  was  manifested.  There  is  no 
ground  to  think  of  a  vision.  Probably  the  mind  of 
the  Spirit  was  made  known  to  Paul  in  some  such  way 
as  it  is  made  known  to  Christians  in  all  times.  It  may 
have  been  through  some  person,2  or  through  some 
event.  From  the  word  used,  "  forbidden,"  we  may  per- 
haps infer  that  the  event,  whatever  it  was,  was  of  a 
decided  character  and  left  Paul  in  no  doubt.  When 
their  plan  to  enter  Asia  was  abandoned,  they  turned 
northwest  and  passed  through  some  part  of  Phrygia 
and  Galatia.3  Luke  does  not  indicate  that  they  made 
any  stop.  The  impression  of  the  whole  passage  is  that 
they  were  being  led  of  God  to  the  new  European  field. 
Yet  it  is  not  therefore  necessary  to  suppose  that  they 
made  absolutely  no  stop  as  they  journeyed  through  the 
region  of  Phrygia  and  Galatia.  If  the  North  Galatian 
theory  be  correct,  as  I  believe  it  is,4  it  must  have  been 
at  this  time  that  Paul  preached  the  Gospel  in  Galatia.5 
This  work  would  not  require  us  to  suppose  that  Paul 
stopped  more  than  a  few  weeks.  Luke  may  have 
passed  over  the  Galatian  sojourn  because  it  did  not 
mark  a  forward  step  in  Paul's  work,  or  because  he  was 
unacquainted  with  it.  His  silence  is  not  strange,  for 
he  does   not  profess   to  write  a  continuous  history  of 

1  Acts  xvi.  6.  2  Comp.  Acts  xx.  23.  8  Acts  xvi.  6. 

4  Appendix  III.  6  Gal.  iv.  12-14. 


THE   GOSPEL  IN   EUROPE  HI 

Paul.  It  is  plain  that  he  gives  us  only  fragments  and 
outlines.  Thus,  for  example,  he  has  no  word  about 
the  Arabian  sojourn  or  the  early  years  spent  in 
Syria  and  Cilicia.  His  silence,  therefore,  in  regard  to 
Galatia  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  his 
narrative.  Some  facts  of  the  work  in  Galatia  may  be 
gleaned  from  Paul's  letter.  He  tells  us  that  he  had  not 
planned  to  preach  there,  but  that  an  infirmity  of  the 
flesh  was  the  occasion  of  his  Galatian  work.1  That  is 
to  say,  he  was  detained  in  Galatia  by  sickness,  and 
while  thus  detained  preached  the  Gospel.  As  his  stop 
was  providential,  so  his  success  was  altogether  remark- 
able. The  Galatians  welcomed  him  as  an  angel  of  God, 
and  the  Gospel  took  firm  root  among  them.2  They  who 
had  served  idols  began  to  live  a  true  spiritual  life,  and 
endured  hardship  for  their  faith.3  They  ran  well,  and 
the  power  of  the  Gospel  was  very  manifest  among  them.4 
Thus,  when  Paul  was  well  enough  to  continue  his  jour- 
ney westward,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
through  his  sickness  the  salvation  of  Jesus  had  come  to 
some  of  his  fellow-men.  Whether  he  preached  in  more 
than  one  community  we  are  not  told,  neither  can  we 
say  whether  his  preaching  was  in  a  town  or  in  a  rural 
district. 

The  next  field  that    Paul  sought   to   enter  was    Bi- 

1  Gal.  iv.  13.  3  Gal.  iv.  8;  iii.  3,  4. 

2  Gal.  iv.  14.  4  Gal.  iii.  5;  v.  7. 


112  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

thynia,  or  Bithynia-Pontus,  a  Roman  province  lying 
on  the  Black  Sea,  whose  Christian  martyrs  of  a  later 
day  are  known  to  us  through  the  letters  of  the  younger 
Pliny.  Again  it  was  made  plain  to  him  that  he  was 
moving  contrary  to  the  divine  will.1  This  time  he 
turned  westward  and  continued  his  journey,  not  at  all 
knowing  where  the  field  of  his  labor  was  to  be.2  As 
Mysia  was  a  part  of  the  province  of  Asia3  into  which 
he  had  been  forbidden  to  enter,  he  passed  it  by,  or 
better,  neglected1^  it,  since  Paul  must  have  passed 
through  Mysia  in  order  to  reach  Troas,  for  Mysia 
extended  as  far  south  as  Mt.  Temnos.  At  this  time 
then  Paul  must  have  had  Europe  in  mind,  for  he  knew 
that  when  he  had  passed  through  Mysia  he  would  come 
to  the  sea.  Yet  when  he  reached  Troas  he  had  no 
definite  plan  for  further  journeying. 

3.    Paul's  Vision  in  Troas. 

Twice  after  leaving  Antioch  of  Pisidia  Paul's  course 
had  been  changed  by  what  he  recognized  as  divine 
authority.  But  the  information  which  was  given  him 
in  regard  to  his  field  of  labor  was  altogether  negative. 
It  was  not  to  be  Asia  and  not  Bithynia.  In  Troas  he 
gains  positive  information,  for  there  he  has  a  vision 
of    a    Macedonian   who    entreats    him    to    come    into 

1  Acts  xvi.  7.  2  Acts  xvi.  8.  8  Marquardt,  I.  334. 

4  Ramsay,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  pp.  196,  197. 


THE   GOSrEL   IN   EUROPE  I  13 

Macedonia.1  Paul's  inference  from  this  vision  was 
that  God  called  him  to  go  into  Macedonia.  It  is  not 
unlikely  that  Paul  had  heard,  in  Troas,  that  which 
led  him  to  think  there  was  an  opportunity  for  the 
Gospel  in  Macedonia.  We  may  even  go  further  and 
say  that,  since  Paul  recognized  the  man  who  appeared 
in  the  vision  as  a  Macedonian,  he  had  probably  be- 
come acquainted  with  him  before  the  vision,  and 
through  this  man  he  may  have  become  interested  in 
Macedonia.  Then  when  his  mind  was  full  of  the 
subject,  he  was  prepared  for  the  vision. 

It  has  been  conjectured  that  this  man  of  Macedonia 
was  Luke.2  In  support  of  this  view  it  is  said  that 
Luke  seems  to  have  had  some  connection  with  Phi- 
lippi,  and  was  perhaps  at  home  there,  for  he  goes 
with  Paul  as  far  as  Philippi  and  there  remains.  It  is 
also  said  that  there  was  nothing  distinctive  in  the 
Macedonian  dress,  and  therefore  since  Paul  recog- 
nized the  man  of  his  vision  as  a  Macedonian  he  must 
have  been  acquainted  with  him ;  but  the  only  man 
whom  he  met  in  Troas,  as  far  as  ouj  narrative  goes, 
was  Luke.3  These  considerations,  however,  are  scarcely 
strong   enough   to    give   the    conjecture   a    firm    basis. 

1  Acts  xvi.  9. 

2  Renan,  St.  Paul,  130-132;   Ramsay,  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  202. 

8  This  of  course  presupposes  that  the  "we"  sections  of  Acts,  viz. 
xvi.  10-17;  xx-  5_xxi-  *8;   xxvii.  i-xxviii.  16,  are  from  Luke's  diary. 

I 


114  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

Luke's  first  meeting  with  Paul,  his  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity, his  home,  and  even  his  nationality,  excepting 
the  fact  that  he  was  not  a  Jew,1  are  points  on  which 
we  have  no  certain  information. 

4.    The  First  Church  in  Europe. 

Paul  started  for  Macedonia  immediately  after  the 
vision,  and  seems  to  have  had  a  very  favorable  pas- 
sage to  Neapolis,  for  he  reached  there  on  the  second 
day,  while  at  a  later  time,  when  travelling  in  the  op- 
posite direction,  he  was  five  days  on  the  same  journey.2 
The  distance  from  Troas  to  Neapolis  is  about  one 
hundred  and  forty  miles,  and  from  Neapolis  to  Phi- 
lippi  ten  miles.  Philippi  was  the  first  Macedonian  city 
that  the  travellers  reached  as  they  came  up  from 
Thessalian  Neapolis,  and  hence  the  first  field  which 
corresponded  to  the  vision.  But  this  is  not  the  mean- 
ing of  Luke's  language3  when  he  says  that  Philippi  is 
"the  first  city  of  the  district  of  Macedonia,  a  colony." 
This  apparently  means  that  Philippi,  though  not  the 
capital  of  the  district,  was  the  most  important  city  in 
it.  Philippi  had  been  made  a  Roman  colony  by  Au- 
gustus in  42  B.C.,  and  consisted  of  Italians  whose  lands 
had  been  given  to  the  soldiers  of  the  emperor.4 

The   Jewish    population   in    Philippi   seems  to  have 

1  Col.  iv.  11,  14.  s  Acts  xvi.  12. 

2  Acts  xx.  6.  4  Marquardt,  I.  92,  note  5. 


THE   GOSPEL   IN   EUROPE  115 

been  quite  small.  There  is  no  mention  of  a  syna- 
gogue, and  even  if  the  "  place  of  prayer "  was  not 
essentially  different  from  a  synagogue,  as  Schurer 
holds,1  it  was  frequented  only  by  a  little  group  of 
women.2  The  location  of  it  by  the  riverside  was 
perhaps  for  convenience  in  the  performance  of  cere- 
monial purifications.  The  first  congregation  was 
composed  entirely  of  women,  a  fact  that  was  typi- 
cal of  the  part  that  women  were  destined  to  have 
in  the  church  about  to  be  founded  there.  The  first 
convert  was  a  devout  proselyte  by  the  name  of 
Lydia,  who,  as  she  was  originally  from  Thyatira  in 
the  province  of  Asia,  was  manifestly  not  a  Mace- 
donian. She  appears  to  have  been  a  woman  of 
some  means,  for  she  had  a  house  or  lodgings  in 
which  she  could  entertain  Paul  and  his  three  fellow- 
laborers.  Other  notable  women  whom  Paul  con- 
verted in  Philippi  were  Euodia  and  Syntyche.3  They 
were  doubtless  proselytes  like  Lydia,  and  not  Jewish 
wives  of  heathen  men  of  distinction.4  Paul's  work  in 
Philippi  continued  without  interruption  for  many 
days.5  The  usual  hostility  from  unbelieving  Jews 
was  wanting.  The  opposition  which  led  to  his  de- 
parture   from   the   city   was    occasioned   by   his   influ- 

1  Geschichte  des  Judischen  Volkes,  II.  369-373. 

2  Acts  xvi.  13.  3  Phil.  iv.  2,  3. 
4  Hort,  Judaistic  Christianity,  p.  89.             6  Acts  xvi.  18. 


Il6  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF  PAUL 

ence  over  a  certain  divining  maid.  This  person 
was  impressed  by  the  Christian  evangelists,  and  pub- 
licly testified  that  they  were  true  servants  of  the 
most  high  God.1  But  as  she  was  believed  to  be  pos- 
sessed by  a  spirit,  Paul  felt  toward  her  as  Jesus  felt 
toward  the  demonized  ones  who  recognized  his  Mes- 
siahship.  This  girl  is  described  by  Luke  as  a  ventrilo- 
quist, for  he  says  that  the  spirit  in  her  was  a  python,  — 
a  Greek  designation  of  a  ventriloquist ;  and  her  utter- 
ances were  regarded  as  prophetic.  If  she  was  not  a 
slave,  she  had  at  least  sold  her  services  to  certain  men, 
and  they  derived  much  gain  from  her.  Therefore  when 
Paul  stopped  her  soothsaying,  he  dealt  her  masters 
a  serious  blow,  and  brought  on  an  assault  which 
put  an  end  to  his  work  in  Philippi.  This  was  the 
first  assault  upon  Paul  from  a  Gentile  source.  The 
charge  brought  against  him  was  twofold :  first,  that 
he  and  Silas,  being  Jews,  were  a  disturbing  element 
in  the  city;  and,  second,  that  they  taught  customs 
which  Romans  could  not  lawfully  receive.2  The 
first  charge  reflects  the  widespread  popular  senti- 
ment toward  the  Jews,  which  was  one  of  hate.  The 
second  charge  probably  refers  to  the  preaching  of 
Jesus  as  Messiah  and  King,  which  was  understood 
to  have  political  significance. 

Paul   and    Silas   were    given   no   chance   to   defend 

1  Acts  xvi.  17.  2  Acts  xvi.  20,  21. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN   EUROPE  1 1/ 

themselves,  but  were  at  once  beaten  with  rods  and 
then  cast  into  prison.1  This  was  a  flagrant  viola- 
tion of  their  rights  as  Roman  citizens,  but  for  some 
reason  they  did  not  make  the  fact  of  their  citizenship 
known.  The  historical  character  of  this  narrative 
in  Acts  receives  support  from  Paul's  first  letter  to 
the  Thessalonians  in  which  he  refers  to  his  experi- 
ence in  Philippi,  and  says  that  he  was  shamefully 
treated  there.2 

The  night  which  Paul  and  Silas  spent  in  prison 
was  full  of  remarkable  occurrences,  but  it  is  not  plain 
that  the  narrator  means  to  affirm  anything  miraculous. 
The  earthquake  certainly  was  not  miraculous,  and  its 
opportuneness  was  simply  providential,  like  the  dark- 
ness on  the  day  of  the  crucifixion.  The  opening  of 
doors  and  the  loosening  of  bonds  fastened  to  the  walls 
or  in  the  ground  are  credible  results  of  an  earthquake. 
The  jailer's  purpose  to  kill  himself,  even  before  he 
has  looked  to  see  whether  the  prisoners  have  fled,  is 
natural.  He  could  have  but  one  thought  regarding 
the  prisoners,  when  he  saw  that  the  doors  were  open ; 
and  their  escape  meant  certain  death  to  him.  His 
treatment  of  Paul  and  Silas,  taking  them  to  his  house, 
was  no  violation  of  his  orders  to  keep  them  safely.3 
When  he  had  refreshed  them,  they  went  back  into 
the  prison,4  but  we  need  not  think  that  the  jailer  again 

1  Acts  xvi.  22-24.         2  l  Thess.  ii.  2.        3  Acts  xvi.  23.        4  Acts  xvi.  36. 


Il8  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

put  their  feet  in  the  stocks.  The  order  which  the 
magistrates  sent  in  the  morning,  to  release  the  pris- 
oners, is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  result  of  the  earth- 
quake ;  it  is  rather  an  expression  of  their  sober  second 
thought.  They  saw  that  their  course  had  been  un- 
lawful, and  they  decided  to  set  the  prisoners  at  liberty. 
When,  in  the  morning,  they  heard  from  their  lictors 
that  the  men  whom  they  had  misused  were  Roman 
citizens,  they  had  no  resort  but  to  do  Paul's  bidding, 
and  come  to  the  prison  themselves  and  bring  the 
prisoners  forth.1  They  requested  Paul  and  Silas  to 
leave  the  city,  and  the  missionaries  thought  it  wise 
to  do  so.  Yet  they  did  not  depart  precipitately.  They 
went  to  the  house  of  Lydia,  where  they  had  a  fare- 
well meeting  with  the  believers,  and  then  they  went 
forth.  Thus  the  first  chapter  of  the  work  to  which 
the  Lord  had  called  them  by  a  vision  came  to  an  end. 
Thus  far  it  had  been  a  work  of  peculiar  suffering  and 
of  apparently  small  fruitage.  But  the  future  was  to 
give  abundant  proof  that  their  coming  to  Philippi  had 
indeed  been  of  the  Lord. 

5.    The   Work  in   TJiessalonica. 

The  capital  of  the  district  in  which  Philippi  was 
situated  was  Amphipolis.  Paul  and  Silas  passed 
through   this  without  stopping  to  preach,  and  in  like 

1  Acts  xvi.  39. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  EUROPE  1 19 

manner  they  passed  though  the  large  city  of  Apollonia. 
Luke's  narrative  suggests  that  there  may  have  been 
no  synagogue  in  either  city.1  If  so,  that  might  ex- 
plain why  Paul  did  not  stop,  for  his  order  of  evange- 
listic work,  even  after  the  conference  in  Jerusalem, 
was  to  the  Jetv  first.  In  that  conference  a  division  of 
fields  of  labor  was  made,  and  Paul  was  to  go  unto 
the  Gentiles  and  the  elder  apostles  unto  the  circum- 
cision,2 but  it  is  plain  that  this  was  not  understood  in 
strict  literalness.  For  Paul  says  that  the  elder  apostles 
recognized  that  he  was  intrusted  with  the  Gospel  of 
the  uncircumcision  even  as  Peter  with  the  Gospel  of 
the  circumcision ;  but  it  was  well  known  that  Paul  in  all 
his  preaching  hitherto  had  begun  in  the  synagogue, 
and  Peter  on  the  other  hand  had  preached  to  the 
Gentile  Cornelius  and  his  household.  It  is  impossible, 
therefore,  to  understand  Paul  as  promising  the  elder 
apostles  in  Jerusalem  that  he  would  henceforth  never 
preach  to  a  Jew.  What  he  agreed  to  was  simply  what 
he  had  long  recognized  as  his  peculiar  mission,  namely, 
that  his  labor  should  be  especially  for  the  Gentiles. 

Having  passed  through  Amphipolis  and  Apollonia 
Paul  came  to  Thessalonica,  the  capital  of  the  second 
district  of  Macedonia,  about  ninety  miles  southwest 
from  Philippi.  Since  the  year  44  a.d.  Thessalonica 
had  been  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the  province 

1  Acts  xvii.  1.  2  Gal.  ii.  9. 


120  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

of  Macedonia,  and  bore  the  title  of  metropolis.  It 
possessed  one  of  the  privileges  of  a  Roman  colony  — 
local  self-government.1  There  was  a  synagogue  in 
Thessalonica  and  quite  a  large  Jewish  population. 
There  were  also  many  proselytes,  and  these  from  the 
upper  class.2  According  to  Acts  Paul  began  his  work 
in  Thessalonica  in  the  synagogue,  continued  there 
three  weeks,  and  won  some  Jews  to  faith  in  Jesus.3 
The  historical  character  of  this  narrative  has  been 
called  in  question  in  the  light  of  Paul's  own  testimony 
in  his  letter  to  the  Thessalonians.4  There  he  ad- 
dresses his  readers  as  former  Gentiles,5  and  makes  no 
reference  to  a  Jewish  element  in  the  church.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  that,  even  according  to  Acts,  the 
church  was  predominantly  Gentile  in  character,6  and 
it  is  not  apparent  why  a  letter  might  not  be  written  to 
this  majority,  which  should  make  no  allusion  to  the 
Jewish  element. 

The  impression  made  by  Acts  that  Paul  was  in 
Thessalonica  only  three  weeks  can  hardly  be  defended. 
A  longer  stay  than  this  is  favored  by  the  fact  that  he 
was  there  long  enough  for  his  condition  to  be  reported 
in  Philippi  and  for  aid  to  be  sent  from  that  church  on 
two  separate  occasions.7     Again,  the  language  of  Paul 

1  Marquardt,  I.  90,  320.  2  Acts  xvii.  4.  3  Acts  xvii.  2-4. 

4  So  Weizsiicker  and  Julicher.       6  1  Thess.  i.  9.  6  Acts  xvii.  4. 

7  Phil.  iv.  16.     The  supposition  of  Zahn,  Einleitung,  p.  152,  that  the 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  EUROPE  12 1 

in  his  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians  seems  to  imply 
a  much  more  extended  sojourn  than  is  mentioned  in 
Acts.  He  says  that  he  worked  day  and  night  that  he 
might  not  burden  any  of  the  Thessalonians.  But  it 
does  not  seem  probable  that,  if  he  twice  received  aid 
from  Philippi,  he  would  have  been  obliged  to  work 
nights  unless  his  stay  there  was  longer  than  three 
weeks.  Again,  when  he  appeals  to  his  holy,  right- 
eous, and  unblamable  life  in  Thessalonica,  and  to  the 
manner  in  which  he  had  dealt  with  the  converts  in- 
dividually, exhorting,  encouraging,  and  testifying,  we 
have  difficulty  in  supposing  that  his  stay  was  only 
three  weeks  long.  In  this  point,  therefore,  we  may 
hold  that  the  impression  made  by  Luke's  narrative  is 
incorrect.  No  especial  significance  should  be  attached 
to  the  fact  that  in  Acts  there  is  a  persecution  by  the 
Jews,  while  the  letter  of  Paul  does  not  speak  of  Jew- 
ish persecution,  but  only  of  persecution  by  the  Gen- 
tiles.1 The  two  statements  do  not  interfere  with 
each  other.  That  the  hostility  of  the  Jews  was  mani- 
fested toward  Paul  is  just  what  his  previous  career 
leads  us  to  expect,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  persecution  was  afterward  carried  on  by  Gentiles, 
for  Paul  expressly  affirms  it. 

Philippian  church  sent  Paul  aid  even  before  they  had  heard  from  him,  is 
surely  improbable. 

1  Acts  xvii.  5 ;    i  Thess.  ii.  14. 


122  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

While  Paul  was  in  Thessalonica  he  lodged  with 
Jason,  who,  to  judge  from  his  name,  —  which  was  that 
of  an  ancient  king  of  Thessaly,  —  was  a  Macedonian, 
and  from  the  fact  that  he  could  give  security  which 
satisfied  the  rulers  we  may  infer  that  he  had  means.1 
The  success  of  Paul  with  the  proselytes  aroused  the 
jealousy  of  the  Jews,  and  with  a  hired  mob  they  as- 
saulted the  house  of  Jason,  but  Paul  fortunately  was 
not  there.2  Jason  and  some  other  believers  were 
dragged  before  the  rulers  on  the  charge  of  being 
confederate  with  Paul,  but  they  were  released  after 
Jason  had  given  security.  In  view  of  verse  10  we  may 
suppose  that  Jason  gave  bond  to  the  effect  that  Paul 
and  Silas  should  at  once  depart  from  the  city,  and  this 
they  seem  to  have  done  that  very  night.  Timothy, 
who  appears  to  have  been  with  Paul  and  Silas  during 
the  greater  part  of  their  stay  in  Thessalonica,  tarried 
a  short  time  after  their  departure,  and  then  followed 
them  to  Bercea.3 

The  success  of  Paul  in  Thessalonica,  though  his  work 
was  broken  off  by  persecution,  was  very  great.  The 
Thessalonians  received  his  word  as  the  word  of  God4 
and  rejoiced  in  the  midst  of  afflictions.5  They  soon 
became  an  example  to  all  believers  in  the  provinces  of 
Macedonia   and   Achaia,  and   their  Christian   life  was 

1  Acts  xvii.  9.  2  Acts  xvii.  5-7.  8  Acts  xvii.  14. 

4  1  Thess.  ii.  13.  6  1  Thess.  i.  6;  ii.  14. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN   EUROPE  123 

everywhere  known.1  Paul  was  tenderly  attached  to 
them,  and  esteemed  them  as  his  joy  and  crown  of 
glorying.2  According  to  Luke  there  were  two  of  the 
Thessalonians,  Aristarchus  and  Secundus,  who  accom- 
panied Paul  the  last  time  that  he  went  to  Jerusalem, 
and  one  of  them  went  with  him  to  Rome.3 

6.    The  Work  in  Bercea. 

Paul  and  Silas  fled  by  night  from  Thessalonica,  as 
he  had  once  fled  from  Damascus,  and  came  to  Bercea,4 
which  was  about  forty-seven  miles  southwest  from 
Thessalonica  by  the  shortest  route.  This  town  also 
was  in  Macedonia,  whither  the  vision  had  summoned 
Paul.  The  synagogue  in  Bercea  was  the  only  one  in 
which,  thus  far,  Paul  had  been  truly  welcomed.5  Many 
Jews  received  his  word,  and  those  who  did  not  receive 
it  did  not  persecute  him.  Here,  as  in  Thessalonica, 
some  of  the  leading  Greeks  of  the  city  accepted  the 
Gospel.  The  work  in  Bercea  was  finally  checked  by 
Jews  from  Thessalonica.  When  they  heard  of  Paul's 
work,  they  came  on  to  Bercea,  and  gained  so  much 
influence  with  the  multitude,  probably  by  political 
charges  such  as  they  had  brought  against  the  evange- 
lists in  Thessalonica,  that  the  brethren  sent  Paul  away. 
It  was  thought  safe  for  Silas  and  Timothy  to  remain.6 

1  1  Thess.  i.  7,  8;   iv.  10.  *  Acts  xvii.  10. 

2  1  Thess.  ii.  17-19;  iii.  I,  5,  etc.  6  Acts  xvii.  II,  12. 
8  Acts  xx.  4;   xxvii.  2.  6  Acts  xvii.  13,  14. 


124  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

There  is  no  statement  in  regard  to  the  length  of  time 
that  Paul  spent  in  Beroea ;  but  since  the  opposition  to 
him  came  from  Thessalonica,  and  not  from  the  people 
of  Bercea,  we  may  assume  that  his  work  continued  for 
several  weeks.  He  left  a  considerable  circle  of  be- 
lievers, but  we  do  not  hear  of  them  again  in  the  New 
Testament.  Luke  tells  us  that  one  of  the  men  who 
went  with  Paul  to  carry  the  contribution  of  the  churches 
to  Jerusalem  was  a  Bercean,  Sopater,  the  son  of  Pyrrhus,1 
and  we  may  infer  from  this  that  the  church  was  vigor- 
ous at  the  time  of  Paul's  collection  for  the  poor  saints 
in  Judea. 

With  Bercea  Paul's  work  in  Macedonia  ended.  He 
had  preached  and  gathered  circles  of  believers  in  three 
cities,  and  had  been  driven  from  each  by  persecution. 
It  is  possible  that  he  labored  in  other  places,  which  Luke 
does  not  mention,  but  we  cannot  infer  this  from  Paul's 
statement  in  Romans,2  that  he  had  preached  as  far  as 
Illyricum.  For  when  he  had  planted  the  Gospel  in 
Philippi,  Thessalonica,  and  Bercea,  he  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  province  of  Macedonia,  and  therefore  could 
say  that  he  had  preached  as  far  as  Illyricum,  which 
bounded  Macedonia  on  the  west.  But  even  if  Paul's 
personal  work  in  Macedonia  was  confined  to  these  three 
cities,  its  influence  was  soon  widely  extended  through 
the   province.      As   early   as  when    he   wrote    to    the 

1  Acts  xx.  4.  2  Rom.  xv.  19. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  EUROPE  125 

Thessalonians,  he  spoke  of  brethren  in  all  Macedonia,1 
and  said  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  had  sounded  forth 
from  Thessalonica  throughout  Macedonia  and  Achaia. 
Thus  we  have  to  think  that  the  work  begun  by  Paul  in 
Philippi,  Thessalonica,  and  Bercea,  as  later  his  work  in 
Ephesus,  was  soon  extended  far  and  wide  through  the 
province  of  Macedonia  by  the  zeal  of  his  converts. 

7.    Paul  in  Athens. 

From  Paul  himself  we  have  but  a  single  allusion  to  a 
visit  in  Athens.  He  says  that  shortly  before  he  wrote 
to  the  Thessalonians,  which  he  did  from  Corinth,  he 
thought  it  good  to  be  left  at  Athens  alone,  and  so  he 
sent  Timothy  back  to  Thessalonica  to  establish  and 
comfort  the  church.2  He  does  not  speak  of  work  in 
Athens,  and  since  he  was  in  Corinth  when  Timothy 
returned  from  Thessalonica,  the  impression  which  the 
passage  makes  is  that  he  did  not  remain  long  in  Athens. 

Weizsacker3  denies  the  historical  character  of  Luke's 
narrative  of  the  Athenian  visit  of  Paul,  but  in  a  manner 
which  quite  fails  to  carry  conviction.  He  says  that 
the  events  which  are  reported  show  no  trace  of  being 
actual  occurrences,  but  are  simply  a  collection  of  well- 
known  things.  But  this  statement  is  plainly  at  variance 
with  the  characteristic  and  unique  elements  of  Luke's 

1  1  Thess.  iv.  10.  2  1  Thess.  iii.  1,  2. 

3  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  265.  McGiffert  strongly  defends  the 
trustworthiness  of  Luke's  narrative.     See  The  Apostolic  Age,  pp.  256-262. 


126  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

narrative,  as,  for  example,  that  the  Athenians  under- 
stood Paul  to  be  teaching  the  existence  of  new  demons, 
when  he  spoke  of  Jesus  and  the  resurrection.  Weiz- 
sacker  says  further  that  Paul's  silence  in  regard  to  a 
church  in  Athens  is  conclusive  against  the  view  that  he 
labored  there  a  considerable  time  and  founded  a  church. 
But  Luke  does  not  at  all  teach  that  Paul  remained  a 
considerable  time  in  Athens,  nor  does  he  claim  that 
Paul  founded  a  church  there.  On  the  contrary,  his 
narrative  makes  the  impression  that  Paul  had  not 
planned  to  work  in  Athens,1  and  that  his  activity  was 
almost  entirely  fruitless.  Two  believers  are  men- 
tioned by  name,  and  it  is  said  that  there  were  a  few 
others.2 

According  to  the  narrative  of  Luke  the  Beroean 
Christians  did  not  suffer  Paul  to  depart  from  their 
city  alone.  Some  of  their  number  took  the  place  of 
Silas  and  Timothy,  and  continued  with  Paul  as  far  as 
Athens,  a  distance  of  about  two  hundred  miles  by 
water.3 

The  language  of  Luke  suggests  that  when  Paul  left 
Beroea  there  was  no  definite  plan  for  him  further  than 
that  he  should  go  down  to  the  seaport,  probably  Dium, 
which  was  about  twenty  miles  distant.  His  further 
journey  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  dependent 
upon   the   ships   to   be   found   there.      The   view   that 

1  Acts  xvii.  16.  2  Acts  xvii.  34.  8  Acts  xvii.  15. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  EUROPE  127 

Paul  went  to  Athens  by  land 1  is  plainly  against 
Acts  xvii.  14,  and  moreover,  had  he  gone  by  land,  we 
might  have  expected  that  he  would  have  stopped  and 
preached  in  some  of  the  large  towns  on  the  way.  On 
reaching  Athens  Paul  sent  back  to  Bercea  by  his 
escort  of  Bercean  friends  and  asked  that  Silas  and 
Timothy  should  come  to  him  with  all  speed.2  The 
motive  for  this  is  not  quite  apparent.  We  learn  from 
1  Thessalonians  that  Paul,  after  leaving  Thessalonica, 
had  earnestly  sought  an  opportunity  to  return.  He 
felt  that  the  church  needed  him.  Once  and  again  he 
had  desired  to  go,  but  had  been  hindered  by  Satan.3 
It  was  still  his  prayer  that  God  would  direct  his  way  to 
Thessalonica.4  Such  was  his  frame  of  mind  in  the 
interval  between  his  departure  from  Thessalonica  and 
the  composition  of  the  first  letter  to  the  church  there. 
We  may  therefore  hold  that  it  was  his  relation  to  the 
Thessalonian  church  which  led  him  to  send  for  Silas 
and  Timothy.  From  Luke's  account  we  should  infer 
that  Silas  and  Timothy  did  not  see  Paul  until  they 
rejoined  him  in  Corinth.5  But  it  appears  from 
1  Thess.  hi.  1,  2  that  Paul  sent  Timothy  from  Athens 
to  Thessalonica,  and  therefore  we  must  suppose  that 
he  came  to  Paul  in  Athens,  though  Luke  does  not 
mention   it.     The  fact  that   he   presently  sent  him  to 

1  Zahn,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T.,  I.  153.  2  Acts  xvii.  15. 

3  1  Thess.  ii.  18.  *  I  Thess.  iii.  II.  5  Acts  xviii.  5. 


128  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

Thessalonica  favors  the  view  that  he  had  summoned 
him  from  Berosa  for  this  very  purpose.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, it  was  a  longing  for  the  fellowship  of  Silas  and 
Timothy  that  led  Paul  to  summon  them  from  Beroea, 
for  in  i  Thess.  iii.  i  Paul  speaks  as  though  it  was  a 
hardship  to  be  left  alone  in  Athens. 

The  activity  of  Paul  in  Athens  was  due  to  the  idolatry 
of  the  city.  This  led  him  to  speak  both  in  the  syna- 
gogue and  in  the  market.1  Of  his  work  in  the  syna- 
gogue it  is  not  said  that  it  bore  any  fruit  at  all ;  and 
the  preaching  to  the  Gentiles  was  singularly  misunder- 
stood, and  won  few  converts.  Paul  was  thought  to  be 
a  plagiarist,2  retailing  scraps  of  learning  which  he  had 
picked  up  from  the  discourse  of  others,  or  at  best  the 
introducer  of  new  demons.  Even  the  word  resurrection 
was  thought  to  be  the  name  of  a  supernatural  being.3 
But  the  very  circumstance  that  he  seemed  to  be  teach- 
ing about  new  demons  made  the  Athenians  curious  for 
a  little  time,  and  occasioned  the  Areopagus  address. 
It  is  debated  whether  we  are  to  understand  by 
Areopagus  a  place  or  a  council,  whether  Paul  was 
taken  to  the  Hill  of  Mars,4  on  which  the  supreme 
court  had  met  from  ancient  times,  or  taken  to  the 
Areopagus   council  which  may  have  met  by  the  Mar- 

1  Acts  xvii.  1 7. 

2  Ramsay,  Si.  Paul  Ike  Traveller,  pp.  242,  243.  3  Acts  xvii.  18. 
4  So  Bethge,  Paulinische  Redcn,  p.  80;   Conybeare  and  Howson,  p.  289. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN   EUROPE  129 

ket.1  In  either  case,  however,  the  hearing  of  Paul 
was  not  of  the  nature  of  a  judicial  trial.  The  fact 
that  he  was  supposed  to  be  a  setter  forth  of  strange 
demons  could  not  be  regarded  as  a  ground  for 
proceeding  against  him,  for  there  was  the  utmost 
liberality  in  Athens  toward  all  foreign  cults.  And, 
furthermore,  there  is  no  trace  of  a  formal  trial  in 
Luke's  account.  No  charges  are  brought,  no  defence 
is  made,  and  when  Paul  was  interrupted  in  his  address 
he  went  forth  unhindered.  These  facts  appear  to  be 
unfavorable  to  the  view  that  Paul  was  brought  before 
the  high  council. 

This  Areopagus  address  is  the  only  one  of  Paul's 
recorded  addresses  which  was  to  an  educated  Gen- 
tile audience.  It  is  marked  by  liberality  of  thought 
in  regard  to  the  Gentiles,  the  same  liberality  which 
we  see  in  the  Lycaonian  address2  and  in  the  epistle 
to  the  Romans.3  Paul  admits  that  the  Athenians 
worship  God,  though  in  ignorance.  He  says  that 
all  nations  have  one  origin  and  one  destiny.  He 
recognizes  Greek  poets  as  teaching  some  truth  about 
God  and  man ;  for  he  quotes  with  approval  the  sen- 
timent of  Aratus,  that  all  men  are  the  offspring  of 
God.  He  does  not  speak  of  justification  by  faith  or 
of    the   second  coming   of   Christ ;    but,    in   regard   to 

1  So  Ramsay,  Renan,  and  Baedeker. 

2  Acts  xiv.  15-17.  8  Rom.  ii.  12-16. 
K 


130  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

this,  two  remarks  may  be  made :  first,  Paul  seems 
to  have  been  interrupted  before  he  had  finished  his 
address,  so  that  it  is  only  a  fragment ;  and,  second, 
we  have  no  right  to  demand  that  Paul  should  put 
the  same  truths  into  every  address. 

8.    The   Work  in  Corinth. 

No  vision  summoned  Paul  to  Corinth,  yet  his  com- 
ing thither  was  fraught  with  weighty  consequences 
both  for  himself  and  for  the  cause  of  the  Gospel. 
Luke  does  not  suggest  why  he  left  Athens,  or  why 
he  turned  his  steps  toward  Corinth.  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  when  Paul  set  out  for  the  province 
of  Achaia,  he  had  Corinth  prominently  in  view.  For 
this  city,  a  Roman  colony  founded  by  Julius  Caesar,1 
was  the  capital  of  the  province,  a  large  and  impor- 
tant place  about  fifty  miles  west  from  Athens. 

When  Paul  began  work  in  Corinth,  he  did  not 
expect  to  remain  long.  We  learn  from  i  Thess.  hi.  1 1 
that  he  was  praying  for  a  return  to  Thessalonica. 
Yet  in  the  ordering  of  providence  he  remained  in 
Corinth  longer  than  in  any  other  city  except  Ephe- 
sus.  His  first  concern  when  he  reached  Corinth 
was  to  find  a  home,  and  work  by  which  he  could 
support  himself.  Fortunately  he  became  acquainted 
with   a    Pontian    Jew,    by   the   name   of    Aquila,    and 

1  Marquardt,  I.  332. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN   EUROPE  131 

his  wife,  and  they  invited  him  to  make  his  home 
with  them.1  They  also,  as  well  as  Paul,  earned 
their  support  by  weaving  goat's-hair  cloth.  It  is 
possible  that  Paul  was  in  their  employ.  When  Paul 
had  found  a  home,  he  began  speaking  in  the  syna- 
gogue as  he  had  opportunity ;  and  yet  his  thoughts 
were  drawn  away  to  Thessalonica,  and  he  could  not 
enter  with  his  whole  strength  into  the  Corinthian 
work.  This  is  apparent  from  Luke's  statement  that 
when  Silas  and  Timothy  came  down  from  Macedo- 
nia, Paul  was  constrained  by  the  word,  and  preached 
with  new  vigor  and  success.2  We  learn  from  Paul 
that  they  brought  a  good  report  from  Thessalonica, 
which  relieved  his  mind  of  much  of  its  anxiety.3  The 
new  vigor  of  his  preaching  soon  bore  fruit  in  decided 
opposition  from  the  unbelieving  Jews,  and  Paul  ac- 
cordingly left  the  synagogue  with  the  announcement 
that  he  would  go  unto  the  Gentiles.4  Titus  Justus, 
a  proselyte  and  probably  also  a  Christian,  who  to 
judge  from  his  name  was  a  Roman,  opened  his  house 
to  Paul,  and  this  was  near  to  the  synagogue.5  Here 
Paul  remained  more  than  a  year  and  a  half.6  He 
had  some  success  among  the  Jews,  but  apparently 
it  was  not  very  great.  The  most  notable  convert 
was  Crispus,  the  ruler  of   the  synagogue.7     Paul  tells 

1  Acts  xviii.  2.        8  1  Thess.  iii.  6.  6  Acts  xviii.  7.  7  Acts  xviii.  8. 

2  Acts  xviii.  5.        4  Acts  xviii.  6.  6  Acts  xviii.  II,  18. 


132  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

us  that  he  himself  baptized  this  man,  though  not 
in  the  habit  of  administering  the  rite.1  A  few  years 
later  we  find  in  the  Corinthian  church  a  faction  bear- 
ing the  name  of  Peter  and  another  bearing  the  name 
of  Christ,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  nucleus,  at  least, 
of  each  of  these  factions  consisted  of  Jewish  converts. 
Hence  we  must  hold  that  Paul  had  some  fruit  among 
his  own  people  in  Corinth.  But  his  success  among  the 
Greeks  was  much  greater.  The  Lord  told  Paul  in 
a  vision  that  He  had  much  people  in  the  city,2  and 
Luke  says  that  many  of  the  Corinthians  believed.3 
From  the  letters  of  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  which 
were  written  two  or  three  years  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  church,  we  may  infer  a  somewhat  nu- 
merous company  of  believers.  He  speaks  of  four 
different  factions,  and  of  many  spiritual  activities.4 
He  speaks  of  the  appointment  of  several  of  its  mem- 
bers to  carry  their  contribution  to  Jerusalem,  which 
suggests  that  the  church  was  relatively  large.5  The 
language  of  Paul  in  I  Cor.  i.  26,  28  indicates  that 
the  Greek  converts  were  as  a  rule  from  the  lower 
class.  Erastus,  the  treasurer  of  the  city,6  and  Gaius 
who  entertained  Paul  and  the  whole  church,6  and 
Chloe  and  Stephanas,7  were  exceptions  to  the  rule. 

1  1  Cor.  i.  14.  8  Acts  xviii.  8.  6  I  Cor.  xvi.  3. 

2  Acts  xviii.  10.  4  1  Cor.  i.  12;   xii.  1-11.  6  Rom.  xvi.  23. 

7  I  Cor.  i.  11,  16. 


THE   GOSPEL   IN   EUROPE  1 33 

While  in  Corinth  Paul  was  unusually  oppressed  with  a 
sense  of  weakness  and  fear.1  It  was  necessary  that  the 
Lord  should  appear  to  him  in  a  vision  and  encourage 
him.2  This  state  of  mind  may  have  been  due  in  part 
to  the  exceptional  wickedness  of  Corinth,3  and  to  the 
recent  discouraging  experiences  in  Athens.  It  is  per- 
haps also  significant  that  Paul  speaks  of  this  weakness 
in  connection  with  his  resolution  to  preach  the  cross  in 
simple  words,  without  any  of  the  arts  of  worldly  wis- 
dom.4 He  knew  that  his  Gospel  would  be  foolishness 
to  most  of  his  hearers,5  for  they  loved  wisdom  and  elo- 
quence, and  this  thought  may  have  had  a  depressing 
influence  upon  him. 

And  yet,  though  Paul  was  thus  oppressed  in  Corinth, 
his  success,  as  we  have  seen,  was  great.  The  Jews 
sought  to  drive  him  away,  but  failed.  They  brought 
him  to  the  judgment-seat  with  the  charge  that  he  per- 
suaded men  to  worship  contrary  to  the  law.6  The 
judge  and  proconsul  was  Gallio,  a  brother  of  the  Stoic 
philosopher  Seneca.  He  refused  to  entertain  the  case 
against  Paul  on  the  ground  that  it  did  not  lie  within  his 
jurisdiction.  For  him  it  was  a  question  of  the  Jewish 
law  only,  and  they  must  settle  it  among  themselves. 
The  accusers  were  then  driven  from  the  judgment-seat, 

1  I  Cor.  ii.  3.  *  I  Cor.  ii.  1-5. 

2  Acts  xviii.  9,  10.  6  I  Cor.  i.  23. 

8  See  Rom.  i.  18-32,  which  was  written  there.         6  Acts  xviii.  13. 


134  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

and  the  Greek l  multitude  who  stood  by  seized  Sos- 
thenes,  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue,  and  beat  him  with- 
out protest  from  Gallio.  This  procedure  illustrates  the 
popular  hatred  of  the  Jews. 

Paul  remained  in  Corinth  many  days2  after  this 
attempt  to  stop  his  work,  and  the  reason  for  his  depar- 
ture is  not  suggested  by  Luke.  One  notable  event  is 
recorded  in  Acts  which  took  place  just  before  Paul 
sailed  for  Syria.  In  Cenchreae,  the  eastern  harbor  of 
Corinth,  about  eight  miles  from  the  city,  Paul  had  his 
hair  cut  short  in  token  of  the  fulfilment  of  a  vow.  It 
is  possible,  grammatically,  to  refer  this  vow  to  Aquila,3 
and  it  may  be  urged  in  support  of  this  that  Paul  was 
inclined  to  keep  himself  free  from  Jewish  rites,  and 
also  that  we  should  expect  to  hear  something  of  the 
reason  of  the  vow  if  it  was  Paul  who  took  it.  Never- 
theless it  is  altogether  probable  that  the  vow  was 
Paul's,  and  not  Aquila's.  For  there  is  no  reason  why 
a  vow  of  Aquila  should  be  mentioned  at  all.  He  is  a 
wholly  secondary  personage  in  the  narrative.  More- 
over, it  is  not  inconsistent  with  Paul's  principles  that  he 
should  take  upon  him  a  vow.  He  could  do  this  without 
sacrificing  his  Christian  liberty,  and  it  was  not  neces- 
sary that  he  should  regard  it  as  in  any  sense  a  merito- 
rious work.     It  is  quite  probable  that  he  had  taken  the 

1  Not  the  Jews,  as  Zahn  and  Weizsacker  hold. 

2  Acts  xviii.  1 8.  8  So  Wendt. 


THE  GOSPEL   IN   EUROPE  135 

vow  upon  him  in  some  hour  of  special  peril  or  trial  in 
the  Corinthian  work,  certainly  not,  as  Renan 1  supposes, 
to  give  solemnity  to  his  resolution  to  spend  the  ap- 
proaching feast  in  Jerusalem,  and  to  prevent  the  possi- 
bility of  changing  his  mind.  The  cutting  of  his  hair 
marks  the  fulfilment  of  the  vow,  not  its  beginning.2 

This  first  European  tour  which  terminated  in  Corinth 
occupied,  on  a  conservative  estimate,  two  and  a  half 
years.  This  estimate  includes  the  time  required  for  the 
visitation  of  the  churches  in  Asia  Minor  and  for  the 
entire  journey  from  Antioch  around  to  Antioch  again. 
The  distance  travelled,  if  Paul  went  into  North  Galatia, 
may  be  roughly  estimated  at  twenty-five  hundred  miles. 
The  result  of  the  tour  was  a  thorough  establishment  of 
the  Gospel  in  the  two  important  provinces  of  Macedonia 
and  Achaia. 

9.    Distinguished  Colaborers  of  Paul. 

If  Paul  was  independent  in  his  conception  of  the 
Gospel,  he  was  dependent  in  his  work  in  a  marked 
degree  upon  the  presence  and  sympathy  of  friends. 
He  never  labored  alone,  unless  it  was  in  Athens.  In 
seven  of  the  ten  letters  which  are  pretty  generally 
admitted  to  be  genuine  Paul  associates  with  himself 
one  or  more  of  his  colleagues  as  joint  authors.  Paul 
was  singularly  fortunate  in  the  men  and  women  whom 

1  St.  Paul,  p.  279. 

2  Comp.  Wendt  in  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts,  pp.  40x3-403. 


136  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

he  took  into  partnership  in  the  Gospel.  If  we  except 
two  or  three  of  the  original  apostles,  the  list  of  Paul's 
colaborers  probably  includes  the  ablest  Christian 
thinkers  and  workers  of  his  day.  First  in  the  circle, 
in  point  of  time,  is  Barnabas.  Like  Paul  he  was  a 
Hellenist,  being  a  native  of  Cyprus.1  He  had  been 
prominent  in  the  Jerusalem  church  before  Paul  began 
his  work  of  persecution,  and  was  probably  obliged  to 
leave  the  city  when  the  persecution  broke  out.2  Ac- 
cording to  Acts  he  was  of  service  to  Paul  on  his  first 
visit  to  Jerusalem  after  his  conversion.3  He  was  sent 
from  Jerusalem  to  Antioch  after  the  work  among  the 
Gentiles  in  that  city  began,4  and  was  twice  sent  to 
Jerusalem  as  a  delegate  from  the  church  in  Antioch.5 
It  is  doubtless  true  that  he  had  hazarded  his  life  for 
the  sake  of  Christ,  though  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
the  church  in  Jerusalem  bore  this  testimony  concerning 
him.6  The  Book  of  Acts  calls  him  an  apostle,7  and 
the  pagans  of  Lycaonia  thought  him  an  incarnation  of 
Jupiter.8  The  prophets  and  teachers  in  Antioch  chose 
him  with  Paul  to  carry  on  the  work  among  the  Gentiles.9 
The  greatness  of  Barnabas  is  nowhere  more  manifest 
than  in  the  fact  that  he  recognized  the  superiority  of 
Paul,  and  quietly   yielded  to  him  the  leading  part   in 

1  Acts  iv.  36,  37.  4  Acts  xi.  22.  7  Acts  xiv.  4,  14. 

2  Acts  viii.  I.  fi  Acts  xi.  30;  xv.  2.  8  Acts  xiv.  12. 
8  Acts  ix.  27.                6  Acts  xv.  26.                     9  Acts  xiii.  2. 


THE   GOSPEL   IN   EUROPE  1 37 

their  joint  work,  though  the  prophets  in  Antioch  seem 
to  have  put  Barnabas  first  when  they  set  him  and 
Paul  apart  for  the  Gentile  work. 

Silas,  or  Silvanus,  whom  Paul  chose  in  Antioch  after 
the  trouble  with  Barnabas,  was  one  of  the  chief  men  in 
the  church  of  Jerusalem,1  and  of  a  kindred  spirit  with 
Paul.  Like  Paul  he  had  the  gift  of  prophecy,  that  is, 
the  gift  of  impressive  and  edifying  speech.2  Like  Paul 
he  was  a  Roman  citizen,3  and  like  him  he  was  willing  to 
endure  hardness  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel.4 

A  third  colaborer  of  Paul,  whom  we  meet  for  the  first 
time  on  the  second  tour  from  Antioch,  was  Timothy. 
He  was  a  native  of  Lystra,  and  a  convert  of  Paul.5  His 
father  was  a  Greek,  and  his  mother,  Eunice,  a  Jewess.6 
His  mother  had  given  him  careful  instruction  in  the 
Scriptures  from  his  childhood,7  though  she  had  not 
brought  him  up  in  the  observance  of  all  the  Jewish  rites. 
The  child  was  not  circumcised,  as  the  law  required. 
Hence  when  Paul  took  Timothy  as  his  companion,  he 
circumcised  him,8  that  he  might  not  needlessly  offend 
any  of  the  Jews  to  whom  he  would  preach  the  Gospel. 
Timothy  was  with  Paul  throughout  the  Macedonian 
mission,  and  after  a  short  interval  of  separation  was 
with  him  again  in  Corinth.     He  accompanied  Paul  on 

1  Acts  xv.  22.  4  Acts  xvi.  19.  7  2  Tim.  iii.  15. 

2  Acts  xv.  32.  6  Acts  xvi.  1 ;    1  Tim.  i.  2.  8  Acts  xvi.  3. 
8  Acts  xvi.  37.            6  2  Tim.  i.  5;   Acts  xvi.  1. 


138  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

his  last  trip  to  Jerusalem,1  was  with  him  in  the  Roman 
prison,2  was  appointed  by  Paul  to  have  charge  of  the 
important  church  in  Ephesus,3  and  was  summoned  to 
Rome  in  the  last  days  of  Paul's  life.4  Paul  associates 
Timothy's  name  with  his  own  in  six  of  his  letters. 

Another  man  who  came  into  association  with  Paul  on 
the  first  European  tour,  and  who,  as  Renan  says,  seems 
to  have  been  created  expressly  to  be  a  companion  of 
Paul,  was  Luke.  We  meet  him  first  in  Troas,  on  the 
assumption  that  those  parts  of  the  Book  of  Acts  which 
are  written  in  the  first  person  are  from  the  diary  of 
Luke.  We  learn  from  Paul  that  Luke  was  a  Gentile 5 
and  a  physician.6  He  accompanied  Paul  from  Troas 
to  Philippi,  and  there  he  disappears  from  view  until 
Paul  visited  Philippi  on  his  last  journey  to  Jerusalem.7 
He  accompanied  Paul  on  this  journey,8  and  also  on  the 
journey  from  Caesarea  to  Rome.9  He  was  with  Paul  in 
the  second  imprisonment  in  Rome,  the  only  one  who 
remained  faithful  to  him.10  The  greatest  service  that 
Luke  rendered  to  Paul  was  the  composition  of  Acts, 
which  has  preserved  much  information  regarding  Paul's 
work  that  we  should  not  otherwise  possess.  Next 
to  Paul,  Luke  is  the  largest  contributor  to  the  New 
Testament. 

1  Acts  xx.  4.  6  Col.  iv.  10-13.  8  Acts  xxi.  17. 

a  Phil.  i.  I.  6  Col.  iv.  14.  9  Acts  xxvii.  I. 

3  1  Tim.  i.  3.  7  Acts  xx.  6.  10  2  Tim.  iv.  II. 

4  2  Tim.  iv.  10. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  EUROPE  139 

Among  the  most  notable  colaborers  of  Paul  and 
servants  of  the  early  Church  were  Aquila  and  Pris- 
cilla.  From  the  hour  when  they  received  him  into 
their  home  in  Corinth  until  the  end  of  his  life  they 
were  devoted  to  the  apostle.  Aquila  was  a  Jew  of 
Pontus,  and  Prisca  or  Priscilla,  though  the  name  is 
Latin,  was  probably  of  the  same  nationality  as  her 
husband.  She  is  always  mentioned  when  Aquila  is 
mentioned,  and  in  four  of  the  six  passages  her  name 
is  before  his.  Thus  she  seems  to  have  been  no  less 
eminent  than  her  husband.  Aquila  and  Priscilla  came 
to  Corinth  from  Rome  shortly  before  Paul  arrived 
there.  They  had  left  Rome  in  consequence  of  an 
edict  of  Claudius,  who,  according  to  both  Suetonius  1 
and  the  Acts,2  had  expelled  the  Jews  from  Rome. 
Orosius  puts  this  edict  in  the  ninth  year  of  Claudius, 
49  a.d.,  but  Schiirer3  inclines  to  a  date  between  50 
and  52.  It  seems  doubtful  whether  all  Jews  were 
driven  from  the  city,4  but  there  is  no  reason  to  ques- 
tion Luke's  statement  that  the  edict  caused  the  de- 
parture of  Aquila  and  Priscilla. 

Whether  Aquila  and  Priscilla  were  Christians  when 
they  came  to  Corinth,5  or  were  converted  by  Paul,6 
is  a  matter  of  pure  conjecture,  since  neither  Luke  nor 

1  Claudius,  25.  8  Geschichte  des  Jiidischen  Volkes,  II.  508,  note  69. 

2  Acts  xviii.  2.  4  Graetz,  II.  202;  Schiirer,  II.  508. 

6  So  Farrar.  6  So  Conybeare  and  Howson. 


140  THE   STUDENT'S  LIFE   OF   PAUL 

Paul  gives  any  hint  as  to  the  time  of  their  conversion. 
Their  attachment  to  Paul  was  intimate.  He  bears 
witness,  when  writing  from  Corinth,1  that  they  had 
hazarded  their  lives  for  his  sake.  When  he  left  Corinth 
for  the  east,  Aquila  and  Priscilla  went  with  him  and 
settled  in  Ephesus.2  It  is  not  unlikely  that  this  change 
was  made  in  order  that  they  might  help  Paul  in 
Ephesus.  This  view  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that 
when  Paul  was  anticipating  a  journey  to  Rome,  Aquila 
and  Priscilla  seem  to  have  moved  from  Corinth  to  that 
city,  as  though  to  cooperate  with  him  there.3  At  a 
later  day  they  returned  to  Ephesus.4  Their  eminence 
as  Christian  workers  and  teachers  is  seen  in  the  facts 
that  both  in  Ephesus  and  Rome  there  was  a  church  in 
their  house,6  and  that  while  in  Ephesus  they  had 
influence  over  such  a  man  as  Apollos,  and  greatly 
promoted  his  Christian  knowledge.6 

It  remains  to  gather  up  what  we  know  of  the  Gentile 
Titus,  who  also  was  an  eminent  helper  of  Paul.  His 
nationality  is  unknown,  but  as  Paul  took  him  from 
Antioch,  when  he  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  consider 
the  relation  of  the  Gentiles  to  the  law,  we  may  nat- 
urally regard  him  as  a  Greek  or  a  Syrian.  The  fact 
that  Paul  took  him  to  Jerusalem,  apparently  as  a  liv- 
ing argument  that  his  work  among  the   Gentiles  was 

1  Rom.  xvi.  4.  8  Rom.  xvi.  3.  5  1  Cor.  xvi.  19;   Rom.  xvi.  5. 

2  Acts  xviii.  18,  19.         4  2  Tim.  iv.  19.         6  Acts  xviii.  26. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  EUROPE  141 

of  God,  is  evidence  that  he  esteemed  him  highly.1 
Paul  seems  to  have  sent  him  to  Corinth  with  the  first 
letter  to  the  Corinthians,2  but  whether  that  be  the  case 
or  not,  Titus  was  certainly  chosen  to  restore  order  in 
the  Corinthian  church  and  to  promote  the  Christian 
life  of  its  members.3  Paul  must  therefore  have  re- 
garded him  as  a  very  judicious,  persuasive,  and  com- 
petent man.  The  result  of  his  mission  to  Corinth 
justified  this  judgment.  Titus  took  charge  of  the 
collection  in  Corinth  and  Achaia  for  the  poor  of  the 
Jerusalem  church.4  According  to  the  epistle  to  Titus, 
he  was  put  in  charge  of  the  work  in  Crete,5  and  when 
Paul  was  planning  to  spend  the  winter  in  Nicopolis 
he  wrote  to  have  Titus  come  to  him.6  He  was  with 
Paul  toward  the  close  of  his  imprisonment  in  Rome, 
and  the  last  information  we  have  regarding  him  is  that 
he  went  from  Rome  to  Dalmatia,  a  later  name  for  the 
province  of  Illyricum.7 

1  Gal.  ii.  I.  8  2  Cor.  vii.  6,  7,  13.  6  Titus  i.  5. 

2  2  Cor.  vii.  7,  8.  4  2  Cor.  viii.  6,  16,  17.  6  Titus  iii.  12. 

7  2  Tim.  iv.  10. 


CHAPTER   X 

Paul  in  Ephesus 

I.    The  City. 

Ephesus  was  situated  on  the  Cayster  River,  near  its 
mouth,  and  for  centuries  before  Paul's  time  had  been 
the  chief  of  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor.  From 
the  time  when  the  Roman  province  of  Asia  was 
formed  (133  B.C.),  which  included  all  the  country  bor- 
dering on  the  .^Egean  Sea  from  Mysia  to  Caria,  and  also 
the  western  part  of  Phrygia,1  Ephesus  was  its  capital. 
It  had  a  large  Jewish  population,  many  of  whom 
were  Roman  citizens,2  and  all  of  whom  were  citizens 
of  Ephesus.3  If  Tarsus  was  the  intellectual  centre  of 
Asia  Minor  in  the  time  of  Paul,  Ephesus  was  the  reli- 
gious centre,  and  the  temple  of  Artemis  or  Diana  was 
the  centre  of  Ephesus.  It  is  this  feature  of  the 
city  which  possesses  the  chief  interest  for  the  student 
of  New  Testament  times.  The  temple  which  stood  in 
Paul's  day  was  more  than  three  centuries  old,  and 
according  to  the  measurements  of  Wood4  it  was  342 
feet   6\   inches    long    and    163    feet    o>\   inches   wide. 

1  Marquardt,  I.  335,  343.  8  Schiirer,  I.  745;  II.  535. 

8  Antiquities,  xiv.  10,  16,  19.      4  Discoveries  at  Ephesus,  London,  1S77. 

142 


PAUL  IN   EPHESUS  1 43 

It  was  at  once  a  temple,  an  art  museum,  and  a 
bank.  As  a  temple,  its  great  treasure  was  the  image 
of  Artemis  which  fell  down  from  heaven.1  As  a 
museum  of  Art,  its  chief  treasure  was  Apelles'  paint- 
ing of  Alexander,  which  was  valued  at  twenty  talents 
of  gold,  or  about  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.2  As 
a  bank,  it  contained  immense  quantities  of  precious 
stones  and  money. 

One  of  the  chief  industries  connected  with  the 
temple  was  the  manufacture  of  shrines  containing  an 
image  of  the  goddess.3  These  were  made  of  terra- 
cotta, marble,  and  silver.4  Pilgrims  to  the  temple 
bought  these  shrines  to  take  home  as  mementoes,  or 
to  dedicate  to  the  goddess. 

2.  Paul's  Arrival  in  Ephesus  and  Contact  with  the 
School  of  the  Baptist. 

When  the  thought  of  Paul  was  first  turned  toward 
Asia,  the  Holy  Spirit  forbade  his  going  thither.5  When 
he  sailed  from  Corinth  for  Syria,  he  touched  at 
Ephesus  and  was  urged  to  remain.  This  he  would 
not  consent  to,  but  promised  to  return  if  the  Lord 
was  willing.6  After  some  months  this  promise  was 
fulfilled.  In  this  interval  Paul  was  for  a  time  in 
Antioch,  and  also  went  through  the  region  of  Galatia 

1  Acts  xix.  35.         2  Lewin's  Life  of  Paul,  I.  324.  3  Acts  xix.  24,  25. 

4  Ramsay,  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  123-129. 
6  Acts  xvi.  6.  6  Acts  xviii.  21. 


144  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

and  Phrygia  on  a  pastoral  visit  to  all  the  churches.1 
According  to  the  common  interpretation  of  Acts  xviii. 
22,  Paul  also  visited  Jerusalem  during  this  interval, 
but  it  is  difficult  to  regard  this  as  historical.  For  it 
seems  improbable,  in  the  first  place,  that  Luke,  if  he 
followed  a  trustworthy  source,  would  refer  to  a  visit 
of  Paul  in  Jerusalem  so  indirectly,  simply  saying  that 
"he  went  up  and  saluted  the  church."  Then,  after 
the  understanding  with  the  elder  apostles,  it  might 
be  supposed  that  Paul  would  not  go  to  Jerusalem 
empty-handed.2  Again,  when  Paul  went  with  the 
collection,  three  years  later,  he  went  in  fear  and 
trembling,  not  knowing  whether  he  should  be  delivered 
from  the  disobedient  in  Judea ;  and  this  fact  is  not 
favorable  to  the  view  that  he  visited  Jerusalem  as 
Acts  xviii.  22  is  supposed  to  imply.3 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Ephesus  Paul  fell  in  with 
certain  disciples  whose  Christian  instruction  had  been 
incomplete.  Their  baptism  had  been  that  of  John,  a 
baptism  of  repentance,  and  they  had  not  heard  of 
the  gift  of  the  Spirit.4  Apollos,  who  succeeded  Paul 
as  a  teacher  in  Corinth,  had  belonged  to  this  sect,  or 
had  occupied  this  position.  He  knew  the  baptism 
of  John,  but  not  Christian  baptism  and  the  gift  of  the 

1  Acts  xviii.  22,  23.  2  Gal.  ii.  10. 

8  Comp.  Weizsacker,  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  pp.  217,  218;  McGiffert, 
The  Apostolic  Age,  p.  274;  and  Wendt  in  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts, 
405,  note.  *  Acts  xix.  1-7. 


PAUL  IN  EPHESUS  1 45 

Spirit.1  Aquila  and  Priscilla  instructed  him  wherein 
he  was  deficient,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  they 
secured  a  meeting  between  Paul  and  the  disciples 
who  shared  the  views  of  Apollos.  Whether  these 
immature  Christians  were  natives  of  Ephesus  or  not, 
and  how  they  had  heard  of  the  baptism  of  John,  are 
questions  for  which  there  is  no  certain  answer.  It  is 
possible  that  they  were  converts  of  Apollos,  for  he 
had  taught  boldly  in  the  synagogue  before  he  met 
Aquila  and  Priscilla.2  It  is  remarkable  that  Apollos 
could  have  lived  in  Alexandria  all  the  years  since 
Pentecost,  and  have  known  only  the  baptism  of 
John.  Plumptre  thinks  it  possible  that  he  and  the 
twelve  also  had  lived  in  seclusion.3  But  what  was 
there  in  their  position  that  would  lead  them  to  seek 
seclusion,  and  then  how  can  we  account  for  their 
coming  forth  from  their  seclusion  and  mingling  with 
other  people  in  the  heart  of  a  great  city  ?  However 
the  fact  be  explained,  these  men  were  practically 
devoid  of  any  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
apparently  accepted  Jesus  as  the  Messiah,4  but  were 
perhaps  in  the  condition  of  the  disciples  in  Jerusalem 
before  Pentecost.  There  was  no  connection  between 
them  and   the   living   Christ.     After   conference   with 

1  Acts  xviii.  25.  2  Acts  xviii.  26. 

8  St.  Paul  in  Asia  Minor  and  at  the  Syrian  Antioch,  p.  109. 
4  Acts  xviii.  25. 
L 


146  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

Paul  they  were  rebaptized,  this  time  into  the  name 
of  Jesus,  and  when  Paul  laid  his  hands  upon  them, 
they,  like  the  disciples  at  Pentecost,  spake  with 
tongues  and  prophesied.1  They  were  filled  with  a 
new  and  inspiring  sense  of  the  greatness  and  com- 
pleteness of  their  salvation  in  Jesus,  which  expressed 
itself  in  such  ecstatic  utterances  as  we  hear  at  a  later 
day  in  the  Corinthian  church.2  This  incident  in 
Ephesus  illustrates  how  far-reaching  and  permanent 
was  the  influence  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  also  how 
vividly  and  deeply  the  apostolic  age  realized  the  differ- 
ence between  baptism  unto  forgiveness  of  sins  and 
baptism  into  the  name  and  spirit  of  Jesus. 

3.    Extent  of  the   Work  in  Ephesus. 

Both  among  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles  in  Ephesus 
Paul  labored  longer  without  interruption  than  he  had  ever 
yet  done  in  any  city.  He  was  tolerated  in  the  syna- 
gogue three  months,  though  he  spoke  boldly,  and  then 
for  more  than  two  years  longer  he  taught  daily  in  the 
school  of  Tyrannus.3  At  a  later  time  he  referred  to 
his  work  in  Ephesus  as  having  continued  three  years.4 
These  references  in  Acts  to  the  length  of  Paul's  work  in 
Ephesus  are  confirmed  by  allusions  in  Paul's  epistles. 
Thus,  toward  the  close  of  his  stay  in  Ephesus,  when 

1  Acts  xix.  6.  8  Acts  xix.  8,  9. 

2  1  Cor.  xiv.  4  Acts  xx.  31. 


PAUL  IN   EPHESUS  147 

writing  to  his  Corinthian  converts,  he  sends  salutations 
from  the  churches  of  Asia.1  But  he  himself  planted 
the  Gospel  in  the  province  of  Asia,  and  the  churches 
which  send  salutations  are  churches  which  have  sprung 
up  by  virtue  of  his  preaching,  though  not  necessarily 
under  his  personal  influence.2  But  the  establishment 
of  these  churches  implies  as  long  a  stay  in  Ephesus  as 
Luke  affirms.3 

This  reference  to  the  churches  of  Asia  confirms  also 
the  statement  of  Luke  that  Paul's  influence  was  felt  not 
only  throughout  Ephesus,  but  even  through  the  entire 
province.  This  region  is  approximately  of  the  size  of 
New  England.  The  language  of  Luke  is  very  strong. 
He  says  that  all  they  which  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the 
word  of  the  Lord,  both  Jews  and  Greeks.4  He  could 
not  have  used  this  language  unless  he  had  possessed 
evidence  that  the  influence  of  Paul's  work  was  widely 
pervasive. 

We  are  to  think  of  this  influence  as  extended  through 
the  province  in  two  ways :  first,  people  came  from  all 
parts  of  the  province  to  the  metropolis  on  business  or  to 
worship  in  the  temple,  and  many  of  them  heard  Paul ; 
and,  second,  some  of  those  whom  Paul  converted  went 
out  as  evangelists,  and  thus  the  seeds  of  the  Gospel  were 
planted  far  and  wide.     Philemon  of  Colossae,  a  convert 

1  1  Cor.  xvi.  19.  2  Rom.  xvi.  5. 

8  Comp.  1  Cor.  xvi.  8,  9;  xv.  32;   2  Cor.  i.  8-10.  4  Acts  xix.  10. 


148  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

of  Paul,  though  Paul  was  never  in  Colossse,1  may  illus- 
trate how  he,  while  in  Ephesus,  reached  some  who 
lived  at  a  distance ;  and  Epaphras  who  was  a  convert 
of  Paul  and  who  was  quite  probably  the  founder  of  the 
church  in  Colossae,2  may  illustrate  the  second  sort  of 
influence. 

The  extent  of  Paul's  influence  in  the  city  of  Ephesus 
is  confirmed  by  the  remarkable  story  of  the  collapse  of 
magic.3  For  this  story  need  not  be  wholly  discredited 
because  we  cannot  regard  it  as  altogether  historical. 
We  may  well  believe  that  Jewish  exorcists  thought  the 
names  of  Jesus  and  Paul  good  names  to  conjure  with,4 
and  that  in  more  instances  than  one  they  made  use  of 
them.  The  very  fact  that  a  Jew  practised  magic  showed 
that  he  had  lost  his  ancestral  religious  faith,  and  though 
he  might  have  no  faith  in  Jesus  or  respect  for  Paul,  yet 
he  might  use  their  names  for  material  gain.  Luke  tells 
how  two  Jews,  perhaps  well  known,  as  they  are  said  to 
have  been  sons  of  a  chief  priest,  sought  to  exorcise  an 
evil  spirit  by  the  names  of  Jesus  and  Paul.  The  use  of 
these  names  by  the  exorcists  roused  the  demoniac  to  a 
passion,  and  he  wounded  the  men  and  made  them  fly 
for  their  lives.  The  demoniac  said  that  he  knew  Jesus 
and  Paul  ;  he  might  fear  them,  but  he  had  no  fear  of 
these   unknown    pretenders.5      This    incident    became 

1  Col.  ii.  I;   Philemon  19.  2  Col.  i.  7.  3  Acts  xix.  13-20. 

4  Acts  xix.  13.  5  Acts  xix.  15,  16. 


PAUL  IN   EPHESUS  1 49 

widely  known,  and  was  regarded  as  a  veritable  recog- 
nition of  Jesus  by  the  invisible  powers  of  evil.  One 
consequence  was  that  many  magicians  voluntarily  burned 
their  books  on  magic.1  They  seem  to  have  felt  that 
demoniac  power  would  succumb  to  no  exorcism  save  that 
of  Jesus  and  Paul,  and  that  it  was  extremely  dangerous 
for  any  one  else  to  attempt  to  drive  it  out.  Of  course 
it  does  not  follow  that  these  men  became  Christians 
because  they  burned  their  books.  This  act  may  have 
been  quite  as  superstitious  as  anything  they  had 
hitherto  done.  But  it  witnesses  to  the  power  of  Paul's 
personality,  and  the  deep  impression  made  by  his 
Gospel. 

4.    Special  Features  of  Paul's   Work  in  Ephesas. 

Luke  reports  that  there  were  miracles  wrought  by 
Paul  in  Ephesus,  and  these  of  an  extraordinary  sort. 
Sick  persons  and  demoniacs  were  healed  by  the  appli- 
cation of  handkerchiefs  or  aprons  which  had  touched 
the  body  of  Paul.2  He  does  not  detail  any  particular 
instance,  but  gives  us  only  this  general  statement. 
And,  moreover,  the  narrative  does  not  explicitly 
affirm  any  act  of  Paul  in  connection  with  the  hand- 
kerchiefs and  aprons.  It  is  only  said  that  they  were 
taken  from  Ids  body,  that  is,  from  contact  with  his 
body.     If  Paul  authorized  this  practice,  he  must  have 

1  Acts  xix.  19.  2  Acts  xix.  11,  12. 


150  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

known  that  the  particular  persons  in  need  had  faith 
to  be  healed  in  this  way,  and  this  peculiar  method 
must  have  been  a  concession  to  the  superstitions  of 
Ephesus.  The  circumstance  is  of  some  weight  in 
this  connection  that  Ephesus  was  the  chief  seat  of 
magic  in  Asia  Minor.  "  Ephesian  letters,"  that  is, 
formulae  of  magic,  were  widely  used  as  charms,1  and 
the  practice  was  so  deep  rooted  that  some  of  Paul's 
converts  continued  for  a  time  the  use  of  these  mystical 
words.2 

And  yet  the  prevalence  of  superstition  in  Ephesus 
does  not  make  Luke's  statement  altogether  credible. 
Ramsay 3  expresses  the  opinion  that  "  the  writer  is  here 
rather  a  picker-up  of  current  gossip  than  a  real  histo- 
rian," and  there  are  some  facts  that  confirm  this  view. 
Thus  Paul  in  his  own  account  of  the  work  done  by  him 
in  Ephesus  does  not  allude  to  miracles.4  Again,  mira- 
cles are  extremely  rare  in  Paul's  work.  Luke  records 
but  three  in  detail  outside  the  present  passage  ;  namely, 
the  smiting  of  Elymas  with  blindness,  the  healing  of 
the  cripple  in  Lystra,  and  the  healing  of  the  father  of 
Publius.  Paul  in  all  his  letters  refers  to  no  single 
miracle  wrought  by  him,  though  he  says  in  general 
that  the  signs   of   an   apostle  were  wrought   by  him,6 

1  Comp.  Flumptre,  St.  Paul  in  Asia  Minor  and  at  the  Syrian  Antioch, 
p.  103;   Winer,  Biblisches  Real-Worterbuch. 

2  Acts  xix.  18.  4  Acts  xx.  18-35. 
8  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  273.                          6  2  Cor.  xii.  12. 


PAUL  IN  EPHESUS  151 

and  in  another  general  passage  refers  to  Christ's 
working  through  him  in  the  power  of  signs  and 
wonders.1  If  Paul  meant  by  the  signs  of  an  apostle 
that  he  actually  wrought  miracles  in  Corinth,  it  is 
remarkable  that  Luke,  who  records  three  miracles 
of  Paul  elsewhere,  does  not  refer  to  them. 

Another  feature  of  Paul's  work  in  Ephesus  is  his 
visiting  from  house  to  house.2  He  may  well  have 
practised  this  elsewhere,  but  it  is  not  recorded.  This 
house-to-house  work  was  not  pastoral,  a  calling  upon 
believers,  but  evangelistic,  and  among  Gentiles  as 
well  as  Jews.3  Paul  went  about  teaching  repentance 
and  faith,  and  preaching  the  kingdom.  He  shrank 
not  from  declaring  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  its 
threatenings  and  woes  for  impenitence,  but  he  did  it 
with  a  tenderness  that  reached  to  tears.* 

Another  detail  of  the  work  in  Ephesus,  learned 
from  his  farewell  to  the  elders  in  Miletus,  is  the  fact 
that  the  labor  of  his  hands  was  more  than  sufficient 
for  his  own  support,5  so  that  he  was  able  to  contribute 
to  the  support  of  others.  This  fact  heightens  the 
impression  of  the  immense  force  of  Paul.  He  taught 
daily  in  public.  He  went  from  house  to  house.  He 
inaugurated  a  work  which  in  a  comparatively  short 
time  was  felt  throughout  Ephesus  and  the  entire  prov- 

1  Rom.  xv.  18,  19.  2  Acts  xx.  20.  8  Acts  xx.  21. 

*  Acts  xx.  27,  31.  6  Acts  xx.  34. 


152  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF  PAUL 

ince  of  Asia,  and  yet  he  did  enough  manual  labor  to 
support  himself  and  to  aid  those  who  were  with  him. 

Finally,  Paul  was  brought  into  great  and  peculiar 
perils  during  his  stay  in  Ephesus.  In  his  letters  to 
the  Corinthians  he  refers  to  two  occasions  when  his 
life  was  especially  imperilled.  Once  he  fought  with 
beasts,  which  language,  whether  taken  literally  or 
figuratively,  involves  extreme  danger.  For  if  the 
"beasts"  were  men,  which  is  favored  by  the  fact 
that  Paul  as  a  Roman  citizen  could  not  be  sentenced 
to  death  by  a  provincial  governor,  and  could  not 
be  thrown  to  wild  beasts  in  the  arena,  and  also  by 
the  fact  that  he  does  not  mention  this  event  in  the 
list  of  his  physical  sufferings,1  even  then,  the  very 
term  of  the  comparison  and  the  fact  that  fighting 
with  beasts  seems  to  be  regarded  as  a  stronger  ex- 
pression than  the  preceding  words,  "  I  die  daily," 
require  us  to  think  of  some  peculiarly  savage  attack 
which  Paul  repelled  only  with  the  greatest   difficulty. 

Again,  some  months  later,  while  still  in  Asia  and 
presumably  in  Ephesus,  he  was  brought  into  such 
circumstances  that  he  despaired  of  life.2  His  deliv- 
erance seemed  to  him  to  be  plainly  of  God.  Whether 
this  peril  came  from  the  plots  of  the  Jews,3  or  from 
the  Gentiles,  he  does  not  suggest.  Besides  these 
two  peculiar  perils  in  Ephesus,  Paul  speaks  of  stand- 

1  2  Cor.  xi.  23-27.  2  2  Cor.  i.  8.  s  Acts  xx.  19. 


PAUL  IN  EPHESUS  1 53 

ing  in  jeopardy  every  hour,1  of  dying  daily,2  of  hav- 
ing many  adversaries,3  and  says  that  the  sufferings 
of  Christ  abound  unto  him.4  It  seems,  therefore, 
that  the  sufferings  and  dangers  of  Paul  in  Ephesus 
were  commensurate  with  his  extraordinary  success 
as  an  evangelist. 

5.    The  Close  of  Paul's   Work  in  Ephesus. 

As  in  Philippi,  so  in  Ephesus,  the  activity  of  Paul 
was  at  length  stopped  by  Gentiles  who  suffered  in 
a  pecuniary  way  from  his  preaching.  The  centre 
of  gravity  of  Ephesus  was  the  temple,  and  the  cen- 
tral object  of  religious  interest  in  the  temple  was 
the  image  of  Diana,  and  one  of  the  prominent  indus- 
tries of  the  city  was  the  manufacture  of  shrines  of 
this  goddess.  This  was  the  point  at  which  the  Gen- 
tile community,  as  an  organism,  first  deeply  felt  the 
influence  of  Paul,  and  the  point  at  which  hot  oppo- 
sition arose  against  him.  This  opposition  was  led 
by  Demetrius,  who  made  the  more  expensive  kind 
of  shrines,  and  who  appears  to  have  been  a  large 
employer  of  labor.5  He  was  doubtless  stirred  up 
by  an  actual  falling  off  in  his  sales,  for  he  would 
hardly  have  troubled  himself  to  oppose  Paul  as  long 
as  his  business  was  uninjured.  He  gathered  his 
guild    together,    and   wrought    up    their    passions    by 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  30.  2  1  Cor.  xv.  31.  8  1  Cor.  xvi.  9. 

4  2  Cor.  i.  5.  5  Acts  xix.  24. 


154  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

telling  them  that  they  were  losing  their  means  of 
support  through  Paul's  preaching,  and  that  even  their 
goddess  was  in  danger  of  being  deposed  from  her 
magnificence.1  The  very  suggestion  of  this  dread- 
ful possibility  called  out  a  loud  recognition  of  the 
greatness  of  Diana  which  seems  to  have  been  taken 
up  by  those  outside  the  meeting  and  passed  on  from 
one  to  another  until  the  city  was  filled  with  confu- 
sion.2 If  the  plan  of  Demetrius  was  to  work  up  a 
mass  meeting  and  arouse  popular  sentiment  against 
Paul  and  his  work,  he  was  eminently  successful.  It 
is  probable  that  those  who  had  attended  his  meet- 
ing led  the  rush  to  the  great  theatre,  which  seated 
about  twenty-five  thousand,  and  that  it  was  they  who 
seized  Gaius  and  Aristarchus,  companions  of  Paul.3 
They  would  doubtless  have  seized  Paul  himself  if 
they  had  found  him. 

The  crowd  soon  grew  so  fast  that  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  Demetrius  and  his  fellow-agitators  to  con- 
trol it  and  inform  it  of  the  real  purpose  of  the 
gathering.  As  a  result,  the  greater  part  of  those 
who  thronged  the  theatre  knew  not  why  they  were 
there.  The  shouting  in  honor  of  Diana  which  had 
called  the  multitude  together,  was  kept  up,  and 
Demetrius  was  no  longer  master  of  the  situation. 
Some    cried   one   thing    and    some    another,    perhaps 

1  Acts  xix.  26,  27.  2  Acts  xix.  28.  8  Acts  xix.  29. 


PAUL  IN   EPHESUS  155 

trying  to  get  the  real  subject  before  the  gathering.1 
Word  came  to  Paul  in  regard  to  the  meeting  and 
the  general  purport  of  it,  and  had  not  his  disciples 
protested  and  some  of  the  Asiarchs,2  or  chief-priests, 
who  were  friendly  to  him,  he  would  have  gone  to 
the  theatre  in  his  own  defence.3 

It  is  evident  that  voices  were  heard  in  the  theatre 
which  brought  charges  against  the  Jews,  for  the  Jews 
made  an  attempt  through  Alexander  to  defend  them- 
selves.4 The  charges  manifestly  connected  the  Jews 
with  the  danger  which  threatened  Diana,  for  it  was  of 
course  known  that  Paul  was  a  Jew;  and  therefore  we 
must  think  that  Alexander  if  he  had  been  allowed  to 
make  his  defence  would  have  sought  to  show  that  it 
was  not  the  Jews  in  general  who  endangered  the 
worship  of  Diana,  but  only  Paul  and  his  followers. 
But  the  sight  of  a  Jew  produced  still  greater  excitement, 
for  there  was  a  widespread  popular  hatred  of  the  Jews, 
and  for  two  hours  there  was  a  babel  of  voices.  The 
dominant  note  was  the  assertion  of  loyalty  to  Diana, 
or  possibly  of  worship.5 

It  appears  to  have  been  physical  exhaustion  which 
at  last  made  it  possible  for  a  sane  word  to  be  addressed 
to  the  whole  multitude.     This  was  spoken  by  the  town- 

1  Acts  xix.  32.  8  Acts  xix.  30,  31. 

2  Marquardt,  I.  505,  506,  513,  514.  4  Acts  xix.  33. 

6  Ramsay,  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  135-142;  Renan,  St. 
Paul,  p.  427. 


156  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

clerk,  or  secretary  of  the  city,  who  was  clothed  with 
very  great  authority.1  He  urged,  first,  that  Diana's 
position  was  safe  beyond  a  doubt.  No  one  could  deny 
that  the  image  which  fell  down  out  of  heaven  was  in 
the  possession  of  the  temple.  His  second  argument 
was  that  no  valid  complaint  had  been  lodged  against 
the  Christians ;  his  third,  that  Demetrius  and  the 
craftsmen  had  ample  legal  provisions  by  which  to 
secure  their  rights ;  and  his  last  point  was  that  such  a 
riot  as  that  just  witnessed  might  bring  grave  accusa- 
tions against  the  city.2  These  arguments  backed  by 
the  authority  of  the  secretary  resulted  in  the  disper- 
sion of  the  multitude,  and  as  in  Corinth,  so  here  the 
attempt  to  stop  the  preaching  of  Paul  failed. 

Yet  soon  after  this  he  voluntarily  left  the  city,  per- 
haps fearing  that  his  presence  might  aggravate  the  situ- 
ation and  interfere  with  the  progress   of  the  Gospel. 

Thus  ended  the  last  great  missionary  enterprise  of 
Paul  of  which  we  have  knowledge.  He  continued  his 
labors  for  some  years,  but  most  of  the  time  he  was  in 
prison.  With  the  planting  of  the  Gospel  in  Asia,  Paul 
considered  that  he  had  finished  his  evangelistic  work  in 
the  East.  He  had  no  more  room  in  those  regions,  and 
henceforth  his  face  was  turned  toward  Rome  and  Spain.3 

1  See  Wood's  Discoveries  at  Ephesus,  Inscriptions  from  the  Theater,  pp. 
47, 49,  53.  According  to  these  inscriptions  the  secretary  was  sometimes  high 
priest  also  and  gymnasiarch.  Hence  it  is  possible  that  the  secretary  in 
Paul's  time  was  one  of  the  high  priests  who  are  said  to  have  been  favorable 
to  him  (Acts  xix.  31).  2  Acts  xix.  35-40.         8  Rom.  xv.  23,  24. 


CHAPTER   XI 

Paul's  Second  Visit  to  Europe  and  Last  Journey 
to  Jerusalem 

i  .  The  Collection  for  the  Poor  Christians  in  yerusa- 
lem. 

When  Paul  left  Ephesus,  he  had  a  definite  and  far- 
reaching  plan  in  mind.  He  proposed  to  visit  Mace- 
donia and  Achaia,  thence  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  after 
that  to  Rome  and  Spain.1  There  is  no  reason  to 
question  the  correctness  of  Luke's  statement  that  the 
purpose  to  go  to  Rome  was  formed  before  Paul  left 
Ephesus,  for  a  little  later  Paul  himself  writes  to  the 
Roman  church  that  he  plans  to  visit  them,  and  that 
he  has  longed  to  do  so  for  many  years?  In  anticipa- 
tion of  the  trip  through  Macedonia,  Paul  sent  Timothy 
and  Erastus  on  ahead,  probably  to  make  collections 
among  the  Christians  of  Macedonia.  The  collection 
had  already  been  begun  in  Achaia,3  and  Paul  had 
given  orders  regarding  it  to  the  churches  of  Galatia.4 

1  Acts  xix.  21;   Rom.  xv.  24;   1  Cor.  xvi.  5,  6. 

2  Rom.  i.  13;  xv.  22,  23. 

8  2  Cor.  ix.  2.  4  I  Cor.  xvi.  I. 

157 


158  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

His  present  purpose  was  to  complete  the  collection 
and  convey  it  to  Jerusalem.  This  collection  was  in 
response  to  the  desire  of  the  apostles,  which  had  been 
expressed  in  the  conference  at  Jerusalem,1  though  it 
was  doubtless  also  prompted  by  Paul's  own  Christian 
sympathy  and  the  hope  that  such  an  offering  would 
help  to  keep  the  peace  between  the  Jewish  and  the 
Gentile  churches.  There  had  been  friction  in  the  past, 
suspicions  and  alienations,  and  since  Paul  knew  how 
conscientiously  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  believers  held 
to  their  respective  points  of  view,  he  could  not  avoid 
being  apprehensive  for  the  future.  Paul  also  felt  that 
it  was  quite  right  for  the  Gentiles  to  contribute  to  the 
mother  church  of  the  Jews.  The  Gentiles  were  in- 
debted to  the  Jews  for  the  Gospel,  and  so  might  well 
contribute  in  turn  to  their  physical  needs.  Such  a 
ministration  would  help  to  convince  the  Jewish  be- 
lievers of  the  sincerity  of  the  Gentiles'  acceptance  of 
the  Gospel,  and  so  would  lead  them  to  glorify  God  on 
their  behalf.2 

This  collection  seems  to  have  been  general  through- 
out the  churches  established  by  Paul.  The  participa- 
tion of  the  churches  of  Galatia,  Macedonia,  and  Achaia 
is  mentioned,3  and  if  Tychicus  and  Trophimus  went 
with  Paul  on  the  last  journey  to  Jerusalem  as  delegates 
to  convey  the  offering,  then  the  churches  of  the  prov- 

1  Gal.  ii.  10.         2  2  Cor.  ix.  12,  13.  s  1  Cor.  xvi.  i;   2  Cor.  ix.  2-4. 


PAUL'S   SECOND   VISIT  TO   EUROPE  159 

ince  of  Asia  were  also  represented,  for  Trophimus  was 
an  Ephesian,1  and  Tychicus  was  from  some  place  in 
the  province,2  perhaps  also  from  Ephesus. 

Paul  seems  not  to  have  received  into  his  own  hands 
any  of  this  money,  and  there  is  no  reference  to  his 
making  personal  solicitations  except  by  letter.  As 
Timothy  and  Erastus  seem  to  have  been  sent  into 
Macedonia  to  work  for  the  collection,  so  Titus  together 
with  the  unnamed  brother  whose  praise  was  in  all  the 
churches,3  and  a  second  man  whose  name  is  not  given, 
had  charge  of  the  matter  in  Corinth.4  Paul  speaks  of 
having  given  order  to  the  churches  of  Galatia,5  either 
when  he  was  last  there  before  coming  to  Ephesus,  or 
perhaps  by  letter  from  Ephesus,  and  this  language 
may  naturally  cover  the  appointment  of  delegates  to 
take  charge  of  the  funds.  But  though  Paul  delegated 
this  work  to  others,  he  had  a  deep  interest  in  it,  as 
appears  especially  from  the  second  letter  to  the 
Corinthians,6  and  from  the  fact  that  his  journey  to 
Jerusalem  was  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the 
collection.7 

Several  circumstances  imply  that  the  collection  was 
large.  Thus  there  is  the  fact  that  it  came  from  all 
the  Gentile  churches  of  Paul  and   was  being  gathered 

1  Acts  xxi.  29.  8  2  Cor.  viii.  18.  5  1  Cor.  xvi.  1. 

2  Acts  xx.  4.  *  2  Cor.  viii.  6,  22.  6  2  Cor.  viii.,  ix. 

7  Rom.  xv.  25. 


l60  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

through  an  interval  of  about  two  years ; *  also  the 
fact  that  a  company  of  at  least  seven  men  were  ap- 
pointed to  go  with  Paul  to  carry  the  offering  to  Jeru- 
salem.2 Paul  tells  us  that  the  churches  of  Macedonia 
gave  far  beyond  their  power,  and  he  made  a  strong 
effort  to  secure  a  generous  contribution  from  Corinth 
and  other  churches  in  Achaia.  All  these  circum- 
stances indicate  that  the  gift  of  the  Gentile  believers 
was  a  large  one. 

2.    The  Troubles  in  Corinth. 

A  second  motive  which  determined  Paul's  course 
when  he  left  Ephesus  was  his  anxiety  for  the  church 
in  Corinth.  Certain  persons  belonging  to  the  house- 
hold of  Chloe  had  come  to  Ephesus,  and  had  brought 
him  a  sad  report  of  the  state  of  the  church.3  This 
report  may  have  been  to  some  extent  counterbalanced 
by  the  presence  and  gifts  of  three  devoted  members  of 
the  church  in  Corinth,  namely,  Stephanas,  Fortunatus, 
and  Achaicus ; 4  but  still  the  facts  reported  were  alarm- 
ing. Even  before  Paul  heard  through  the  household 
of  Chloe,  he  had  once  received  bad  news  regarding  the 
Corinthian  church,  to  which  he  replied  in  a  letter  no 
longer  extant.6  But  the  second  report  seems  to  have 
been  worse  than  the  first.     There  was  now  a  partisan 

1  2  Cor.  viii.  io.  8  i  Cor.  i.  u. 

2  Acts  xx.  4.  4  1  Cor.  xvi.  17,  18. 
6  1  Cor.  v.  9.     Comp.  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I.  245. 


PAUL'S   SECOND   VISIT  TO   EUROPE  l6l 

spirit  which  threatened  the  peace  and  growth  of  the 
church ;  there  was  fornication  and  going  to  law  before 
unbelievers;  there  was  eating  of  meat  which  had 
been  offered  to  idols,  though  brethren  were  caused  to 
stumble  thereby ;  and  there  was  drunkenness,  and 
profanation  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  unprofitable 
speaking  with  tongues,  and  a  denial  of  the  resurrection. 
Paul  replied  to  this  report  by  the  composition  of  our 
first  letter  to  the  Corinthians.  It  is  still  debated 
whether  he  did  not  also  visit  Corinth  in  the  interval 
between  the  two  visits  which  Luke  reports.  Such  a 
visit  is  inferred  from  statements  in  the  second  letter. 
It  is  there  said,1  "  Behold,  this  is  the  third  time  I  am 
ready  to  come  to  you,"  and  again,  "This  is  the  third 
time  I  am  coming  to  you."  The  language  of  Paul  in 
2  Cor.  ii.  i  is  also  thought  to  argue  a  third  visit,  for  he 
says  there,  "  I  determined  this  for  myself,  that  I  would 
not  come  to  you  again  with  sorrow."  This  is  held  to 
imply  that  he  had  already  come  to  them  once  in  sorrow, 
which  of  course  was  not  true  of  the  first  visit,  when  he 
established  the  church.  But  it  appears  doubtful,  on 
examination,  whether  a  single  one  of  these  passages 
necessarily  bears  witness  to  a  third  visit.  Thus  the 
thought  of  2  Cor.  ii.  i  may  be :  I  determined  this  for 
myself,  that  I  would  not  come  back  to  you  with  sorrow. 
Likewise  the  language  of  2  Cor.  xii.  14  may  refer  to  a 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  14;  xiii.  I. 
M 


1 62  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

purpose  to  go  to  Corinth,  and  not  to  a  veritable  visit. 
He  had  been  ready  twice  before ;  now  for  the  third 
time  he  is  ready.  Once  he  had  planned  to  come  to 
Corinth  by  way  of  Macedonia,1  and  when  he  had  this 
in  mind  he  seems  to  have  hoped  that  his  letter  would 
restore  order  in  the  church  in  Corinth,  so  that  his 
coming  would  be  in  joy.  Again,  he  was  minded  to 
come  to  Corinth,  pass  into  Macedonia,  and  then  return 
a  second  time  to  Corinth.2  This  purpose  was  never 
realized.  He  received  such  intelligence  from  the 
church  that  he  counted  it  wise  to  postpone  his  visit. 
This  postponement  and  change  of  plan  was  used 
against  him  by  his  enemies  in  Corinth,3  but  he  justified 
it  on  the  ground  that,  had  he  come  as  he  intended,  his 
coming  would  have  been  with  sorrow  for  him  and  for 
them.4  It  would  have  been  necessary  for  him  to  deal 
severely  with  those  who  opposed  him.5  Instead  of 
carrying  out  the  purpose  to  visit  Corinth,  to  which  he 
refers  in  2  Cor.  i.  15,  16,  he  seems  to  have  sent  Titus  to 
represent  him  in  Corinth  and  to  uphold  his  authority 
against  the  adversaries.6  Titus  was  largely  successful 
in  this  mission,  and  returning  met  Paul  in  Macedonia 
with  a  report  which  occasioned  the  second  letter  to  the 
Corinthians.7     Thus   it   appears  that  the  language  of 

1  1  Cor.  xvi.  5-9.  3  2  Cor.  i.  19.  6  2  Cor.  i.  23. 

2  2  Cor.  i.  15,  16.  4  2  Cor.  ii.  I.  6  2  Cor.  xii.  18. 

7  2  Cor.  ii.  13;  vii.  5-16. 


PAUL'S   SECOND   VISIT  TO   EUROPE  163 

Paul  in  2  Cor.  xii.  14  refers  rather  to  a  purpose  to  visit 
Corinth  than  to  an  actual  visit.  Now  if  that  is  the 
meaning  of  2  Cor.  xii.  14,  then  in  2  Cor.  xiii.  1,  which  is 
manifestly  parallel,  we  must  hold  that  the  "  third  time  " 
refers  not  to  a  third  visit,  but  to  a  third  plan  to  visit. 
And  this  interpretation  suits  the  context.  The  second 
plan  to  come  was  abandoned  in  order  to  spare  the 
Corinthians.  A  man  was  sent  to  meet  and  overcome 
the  opposition  which  was  being  shown  to  Paul's  authority. 
This  agent  had  accomplished  a  good  deal,  but  there 
was  still  hostility  toward  the  apostle.  He  accordingly 
wrote  a  strong  letter  from  Macedonia,  a  part  of  which 
is  especially  addressed  to  the  opposing  minority,  and 
concluded  with  the  threat  that  he  would  come  and 
deal  sharply  with  any  who  continued  in  their  evil 
course  toward  him.1 

Since  therefore  there  is  no  certain  basis  in  2  Co- 
rinthians for  the  inference  that  Paul  made  a  visit  to 
Corinth  of  which  Luke  does  not  speak  in  the  Acts,  and 
since  this  hypothesis  is  not  plainly  necessary  to  the 
explanation  of  any  passages  in  2  Corinthians,  we  decline 
to  supplement  the  narrative  of  Luke. 

When  Paul  started  for  Ephesus  at  the  close  of  his 
long  sojourn  there,  he  had  been  in  Corinth  but  once. 
Nor  was  he  ready  now  to  turn  his  steps  immediately 
toward   Achaia.     He   must   first   see   Titus   and   learn 

1  2  Cor.  xiii.  2,  10. 


1 64  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

the  results  of  his  mission.  It  appears  that  he  ex- 
pected to  meet  Titus  in  Troas,  and  when  he  arrived 
there  and  did  not  find  him,  he  was  greatly  troubled.1 
There  was  a  favorable  opening  for  the  Gospel  in 
Troas,  but  he  was  in  such  suspense  and  solicitude 
that  he  could  not  preach.  He  left  Troas  therefore 
and  came  into  Macedonia.2  His  distress  continued. 
"Without  were  fightings,  within  were  fears."3  But 
Titus  at  length  arrived  from  Corinth,  and  Paul  was 
comforted.  Titus  reported  a  greatly  improved  state 
of  the  Corinthian  church.  Many  of  the  members 
were  longing  to  see  the  apostle,  and  were  zealously 
following  the  counsel  which  he  had  given  in  his  first 
letter.4  In  these  circumstances,  then,  while  Paul  was 
of  good  courage  regarding  the  Corinthians,  he  wrote 
his  second  letter  to  them.  In  that  part  of  the  letter 
which  is  directed  against  the  Judaizers  in  Corinth, 
there  are  several  points  of  biographical  interest. 
Thus,  it  appears  that  while  he  was  establishing  the 
church  in  Corinth,  he  had  received  aid  from  Mace- 
donia, as  he  had  received  aid  from  Philippi  while  he 
was  in  Thessalonica.5  We  know  that  he  worked  at  his 
trade  in  Corinth,6  and  that  he  was  nevertheless  some- 
times  in   want.7      However,    he    did    not   burden   the 

1  2  Cor.  ii.  12.  8  2  Cor.  vii.  5.  6  2  Cor.  xi.  9. 

2  2  Cor.  ii.  13.  4  2  Cor.  vii.  7,  II;  i.  14.  6  Acts  xviii.  3. 

7  2  Cor.  xi.  9. 


PAUL'S   SECOND  VISIT  TO   EUROPE  1 65 

Corinthian  Christians,  for  his  wants  were  supplied 
from  Macedonia. 

Again,  we  learn  from  this  letter  of  sufferings  which 
had  befallen  Paul  that  are  mentioned  nowhere  else. 
He  speaks  of  having  been  in  prisons,  but  we  know  of 
only  one  imprisonment  prior  to  the  second  letter  to 
the  Corinthians.  He  speaks  of  having  been  five 
times  scourged  by  the  Jews,  but  we  have  no  other 
knowledge  of  any  one  of  these  scourgings.  He  says 
he  had  been  beaten  with  rods  three  times,  and  we 
know  of  but  one  occasion  where  he  was  thus  beaten. 
He  says  that  he  had  suffered  shipwreck  three  times, 
and  on  one  of  the  three  occasions  had  been  in  the 
water  twenty-four  hours.  Of  these  experiences  also 
we  have  no  further  knowledge.  How  many  interest- 
ing but  unwritten  chapters  of  Paul's  history  are 
alluded  to  in  these  brief  sentences ! 

Finally,  it  is  in  this  letter  to  the  Corinthians  that 
Paul  speaks  of  the  thorn  in  his  flesh.1  This  was  given 
to  him  to  prevent  undue  exaltation  because  of  the 
revelations  which  he  had  received.  He  speaks  of  it  in 
connection  with  a  vision  which  he  had  fourteen  years 
before  the  composition  of  second  Corinthians ;  that  is, 
in  the  year  43  or  44.  At  that  time  he  was  in  Antioch, 
and  according  to  Acts  went  to  Jerusalem  with  Barnabas 
as  a  delegate  from  the  church  of  Antioch  to  carry  their 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  7. 


1 66  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

contribution  to  the  famine  fund.  But  whether  the 
vision  was  in  Jerusalem  or  in  Antioch  cannot  be  said ; 
neither  do  we  know  anything  about  its  occasion.  We 
know  only  that  the  vision  was  extraordinary  even  for 
Paul,  and  that  after  the  vision  something  befell  him 
whose  providential  purpose  was  to  keep  him  humble. 
It  was  not  at  once  regarded  in  this  light,  for  then  Paul 
would  not  have  besought  the  Lord  that  it  might  depart 
from  him.  But  he  afterward  came  to  look  upon  it  as  serv- 
ing this  end.  His  prayer  for  its  removal,  though  most 
earnest,  was  unavailing  :  the  thorn  remained.  And  since 
it  led  Paul  to  a  new  realization  of  the  grace  of  Christ, 
he  rejoiced  in  it.  He  refers  to  it  as  a  tvcakness,  and 
classes  it  with  injuries,  necessities,  persecutions,  and  dis- 
tresses for  Christ's  sake.1  The  passage  leads  us  to  think 
of  some  sort  of  physical  suffering,  but  affords  no  certain 
clue  to  its  particular  character.  Epilepsy,  malarial 
fever,  headache,  disease  of  the  eyes,  and  other  forms  of 
physical  ailment  have  been  thought  of,  but  they  are 
mere  conjectures.  The  important  fact,  however,  for  the 
biography  of  Paul  is  that  he  was  subject  to  some  form 
of  suffering  which  was  severe  and  humiliating. 

3.    In  Macedonia  and  Achaia. 

Luke  tells  us  that  Paul  after  leaving  Ephesus  visited 
the  believers  in  Macedonia  and  gave  them  much  ex- 
hortation.2    From  Paul  himself  we  learn  that  this  tour 

1  2  Cor.  xii.  10.  2  Acts  xx.  2. 


PAUL'S   SECOND  VISIT  TO  EUROPE  167 

among  the  churches  folloived  the  return  of  Titus  from 
Corinth,  and  very  likely  also  the  composition  of  the 
second  letter  to  the  Corinthians.  For  until  he  saw 
Titus  and  heard  his  report,  he  was  in  no  condition  to 
visit  and  exhort  the  churches.1  But  after  his  mind  had 
been  relieved  in  regard  to  the  church  in  Corinth,  he 
went  through  Macedonia,  visiting  the  churches  which 
he  had  founded  and  perhaps  others  which  had  been 
established  by  his  converts.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
he  preached  in  any  new  fields  at  this  time.  He  not 
only  exhorted  believers  and  encouraged  them  in  the 
Christian  life,  but  he  seems  to  have  given  considerable 
thought  to  the  collection  for  the  poor  in  Jerusalem.2 
While  he  travelled  in  Macedonia,  he  sent  Titus  to 
Corinth  in  the  interest  of  the  collection,  and  with  him 
two  others  whose  names  are  not  given.3  Of  one  of  these 
it  is  expressly  said  that  he  was  appointed  by  the 
churches,  that  is,  the  churches  of  Macedonia,  and  the 
other  also  seems  to  have  been  appointed,  as  he  is  called 
a  "  messenger "  of  the  churches.  Thus  there  was  a 
committee  of  three  men  who  had  charge  of  the  collec- 
tion in  Achaia. 

From  Macedonia  Paul  went  into  Greece,  where  he 
spent  three  months.4  If  the  desire  which  he  com- 
municated   to    the     Corinthians    from     Ephesus    was 

1  2  Cor.  ii.  13;   vii.  5-16.  8  2  Cor.  viii.  18,  22. 

2  2  Cor.  viii.  3,  4.  *  Acts  xx.  3. 


168  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

realized,  he  spent  most  of  this  time  in  Corinth.1 
While  there  he  was  entertained  by  Gaius,  who  seems 
to  have  kept  an  open  house  for  all  believers.2  His 
old  hosts,  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  were  now  in  Ephesus. 
We  are  not  told  how  Paul  spent  these  months  in 
Achaia.  He  hoped  that  the  contribution  would  be 
ready  before  he  should  arrive  in  Corinth,3  but  we 
do  not  know  whether  it  was.  It  is  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  Paul  found  much  to  do  in  confirming  and 
perhaps  harmonizing  the  membership  of  this  church, 
notwithstanding  all  that  had  been  done  by  his  letters 
and  by  Titus.  In  this  period,  too,  falls  the  composi- 
tion of  the  epistle  to  the  Romans.  That  Paul  was 
active  during  these  three  months  and  that  his  influ- 
ence was  deeply  felt  may  further  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  the  Jews  conspired  to  kill  him.4  The 
discovery  of  this  plot  changed  his  plan  of  travel,  and 
instead  of  starting  for  Jerusalem  by  boat,  as  he  had 
planned,  he  determined  to  go  back  through  Mace- 
donia. It  is  possible  that  the  plot  was  to  be  exe- 
cuted on  shipboard,  and  for  that  reason  Paul  changed 
his  plan. 

4.    The  Fifth  and  Last  Journey  to  Jerusalem. 
Paul  set  out  from  Corinth  accompanied  by  at  least 
seven  men  who  are  to  be  regarded  as  delegates  from 

1  I  Cor.  xvi.  6.         2  Rom.  xvi.  23.  8  2  Cor.  ix.  5.  4  Acts  xx.  3. 


PAUL'S   SECOND   VISIT  TO   EUROPE  1 69 

the  churches  to  carry  their  contribution  to  Jerusalem.1 
He  had  spoken  of  the  appointment  of  such  delegates 
while  yet  in  Ephesus,2  and  we  have  an  incidental 
reference  to  the  presence  in  Jerusalem  of  one  of  the 
men  who  are  named.3  Moreover,  the  fact  that  the 
seven  men  represent  the  larger  part  of  Paul's  mission- 
ary field  is  evidence  that  they  were  with  him  on  this 
journey  in  an  official  capacity.  Sopater  was  from 
Bercea,  and  possibly  had  been  with  Paul  in  Corinth.4 
Aristarchus  and  Secundus  were  from  Thessalonica. 
The  former  had  been  with  Paul  in  Ephesus,5  and 
later  we  find  him  with  Paul  on  the  voyage  to  Rome.6 
Gaius  was  from  Derbe,  in  the  heart  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  Timothy  from  Lystra.  Tychicus  and  Trophimus 
were  from  the  Roman  province  of  Asia,  and  Trophi- 
mus at  least  from  its  capital.7  Achaia  is  not  repre- 
sented in  this  list  by  name,  nor  are  the  churches  of 
Galatia,  unless  we  hold  the  South  Galatian  theory. 
It  is  possible  that  Paul  himself  was  to  represent  the 
Corinthian  church,8  and  possible  also  that  Luke,  who 
went  from  Philippi  and  joined  the  party  in  Troas, 
represented  the  Philippian  church.9 

The  journey  toward  Jerusalem  was  a  leisurely  one,  at 
least  the  earlier  part  of  it.     The   party  stopped  for  a 

1  Acts  xx.  4.  4  Rom.  xvi.  21.  7  Acts  xxi.  29. 

2  I  Cor.  xvi.  3,  4.  6  Acts  xix.  29.  8  I  Cor.  xvi.  4. 
8  Acts  xxi.  29.                6  Acts  xxvii.  2.            9  Acts  xx.  5,  6. 


170  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

week  in  the  Roman  colony  of  Troas,1  where  there 
was  a  company  of  believers,  and  Luke  relates  how 
the  last  night  of  their  stay  was  spent.2  The  disciples 
of  Troas  and  the  Christian  travellers  were  gathered 
together  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  to  keep  the 
Lord's  Supper.  The  meeting  was  on  the  third  floor 
of  a  building.  Paul  discoursed  until  midnight.  About 
that  time  a  young  man  named  Eutychus,  having  fallen 
asleep  in  a  window  to  which  he  may  have  retired  on 
account  of  the  heat  produced  by  the  many  lights,  fell 
out  upon  the  ground,  and  was  taken  up  apparently 
dead.  Ramsay3  supposes  that  Luke  had  satisfied 
himself  that  the  young  man  was  actually  dead,  and 
since  Luke  was  a  physician  he  of  course  ought  to 
know.  And  yet  the  language  of  Luke  may  mean 
only  that  they  who  lifted  Eutychus  from  the  ground 
supposed  that  he  was  dead.  This,  indeed,  seems  to  be 
required  by  the  language  of  Paul,  for  he  checked  the 
weeping  of  the  friends  with  the  words  "his  life  is  in 
him."  There  is  no  suggestion  that  Paul  thought  of 
restoring  a  dead  person  to  life.  He  did  not  pray,  as 
did  Peter  at  the  bedside  of  Dorcas ; 4  he  simply 
embraced  the  unconscious  one,  and  then  reported 
that  his  life  was  in  him.  Nor  is  it  said  that  the  lad 
arose  at  once,  as   might   have   been   expected   had   he 

1  Acts  xx.  6.  8  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  290. 

2  Acts  xx.  7-12.  4  Acts  ix.  40. 


PAUL'S  SECOND  VISIT  TO    EUROPE  171 

been  miraculously  restored.  When  Paul  was  assured 
that  his  life  was  in  him,  he  went  back  upstairs ;  and 
the  young  man  is  not  mentioned  again  until  morning, 
when  it  is  said  that  his  friends  led  him  alive,  that  is, 
perhaps,  led  him  forth  to  his  home. 

From  Troas  Paul  went  on  foot  about  twenty  miles 
to  Assos,  while  the  rest  of  the  company  went  by  ship.1 
Rejoining  them  at  Assos,  the  company  came  on  the 
third  day  to  Miletus  at  the  mouth  of  the  Masander 
River  about  thirty-five  miles  from  Ephesus.2  This  was 
the  metropolis  of  Ionia.  Paul  stopped  here  long  enough 
to  send  to  Ephesus  and  have  the  elders  of  the  church 
come  down  to  see  him.  The  address3  which  he  made 
to  them,  from  which  we  have  already  drawn,  reflects 
the  feelings  which  filled  Paul's  soul  as  he  went  toward 
Jerusalem.  The  apprehension  which  he  had  felt  when 
writing  from  Corinth  to  Rome 4  seems  to  have  deep- 
ened, and  now  he  has  the  conviction  that  bonds  and 
afflictions  await  him.  He  does  not  know  just  what 
his  fate  will  be,  but  he  is  sure  that  suffering  is  before 
him.  And  yet  though  foreseeing  this  he  feels  an  inner 
constraint  to  go  to  Jersusalem.5  What  circumstances 
had  produced  this  conviction  in  Paul  we  do  not  know. 
It  may  have  come  from  his  experience  of  the  plots  of 
the  Jews,  who  in  various  cities  had  sought  to  kill  him, 

1  Acts  xx.  13,  14.  3  Acts  xx.  18-35.  5  Acts  >""•  12-14. 

2  Acts  xx.  14,  15.  4  Rom.  xv.  30,  31. 


172  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

and  from  his  knowledge  that  the  hostility  of  his 
countrymen  toward  him  was  keenest  in  Jerusalem.  It 
was  natural  that  his  apprehension  should  deepen  as 
he  came  nearer  to  the  goal  of  his  journey.  When  in 
Miletus,  he  was  so  burdened  with  the  thought  of  his 
approaching  fate  that  he  told  his  friends  they  would 
not  see  his  face  again.  This  is  not  to  be  regarded  as 
an  inspired  prediction,  but  rather  as  a  strong  expres- 
sion of  the  feeling  which  filled  Paul's  heart.  The  de- 
parture from  Miletus  is  biographically  interesting,  for 
it  shows  us  that  Paul  won  the  hearts  of  men  no  less 
than  their  minds.  The  elders  wept  sore  and  embraced 
Paul  with  kisses.1 

At  Patara,  one  of  the  chief  cities  of  Lycia,  Paul  and 
his  companions  changed  ships,  taking  a  boat  which  had 
a  cargo  for  Tyre.2  There  they  stopped  again  for  a 
week,  and  to  this  visit  is  due  our  knowledge  that  there 
was  a  church  in  Tyre  at  this  time.  The  Tyrian  Chris- 
tians urged  Paul  not  to  go  to  Jerusalem,3  and  they 
seem  to  have  thought  that  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  them 
this  counsel.  We  may  suppose  that  Paul  had  told 
them  of  his  apprehensions,  as  he  had  the  friends  in 
Miletus,  and  the  result  was  that  they  sought  to  dis- 
suade him  from  his  purpose.  We  must  think,  however, 
that  it  was  the  Tyrian  Christians  rather  than  Paul  who 
misunderstood  the  Spirit. 

1  Acts  xx.  37.  2  Acts  xxi.  1-3.  3  Acts  xxi.  4. 


PAUL'S  SECOND  VISIT  TO   EUROPE  173 

From  Tyre  a  sail  of  twenty  miles  brought  Paul  to 
Ptolemais,1  which  had  recently  been  made  a  Roman 
colony  by  Claudius,  and  after  tarrying  a  day  with  the 
disciples  he  went  on  by  land  to  Caesarea,  a  distance 
of  about  twenty-five  miles.  Here  the  company  re- 
mained some  days,  though  Luke  has  previously  said 
that  Paul  was  hastening  in  order  to  be  in  Jerusalem 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  Here  Paul  met  a  prophet 
from  Judea  by  the  name  of  Agabus,  probably  the 
same  who  came  to  Antioch  when  Paul  and  Barnabas 
were  preaching  there.  He  threw  a  little  fresh  light 
upon  Paul's  future,  for  he  assured  him  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  that  the  Jews  would  deliver  him  into  the  hands 
of  the  Gentiles.2  There  is  no  evidence  that  Agabus 
foresaw  what  would  be  the  outcome  of  Paul's  arrest; 
he  saw  only  that  he  would  come  before  the  Roman 
authorities.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  Agabus  did  not 
seek  to  dissuade  Paul  from  going  to  Jerusalem.  He 
told  him  what  was  in  store  for  him  ;  but  it  was  the 
companions  of  Paul  and  his  friends  in  Caesarea  who 
based  upon  the  announcement  of  Agabus  the  infer- 
ence that  Paul  ought  not  to  go  to  Jerusalem.  Paul 
believed  that  this  was  a  wrong  inference,  and  so  with- 
stood the  entreaties  of  his  friends.  His  later  history 
seems  to  justify  the  correctness  of  his  view,  though  of 
course  we  cannot  tell   how  much    he  would   have   ac- 

1  Acts  xxi.  7.  2  Acts  xxi.  II. 


174  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

complished  for  the  kingdom  of  God  had  he  heeded 
the  advice  of  his  friends  and  remained  at  a  distance 
from  Jerusalem. 

From  Caesarea  the  escort  of  Paul  was  larger  than 
before,  as  some  of  the  disciples  from  that  place  accom- 
panied him.1  It  was  arranged  before  starting  from 
Csesarea  that  Paul  and  his  companions  should  lodge 
in  Jerusalem  with  a  Cypriote  Jew  whose  name  was 
Mnason. 

1  Acts  xxi.  1 6.  The  Western  text  represents  that  Mnason  lived  in  a 
village  between  Csesarea  and  Jerusalem.  See  Blass,  Acta  Apostolorum, 
1896.  Ramsay  adopts  this  text,  and  thinks  that  the  friends  from  Csesarea 
did  not  accompany  Paul  further  than  this  village.  See  St.  Paul  the  Trav- 
eller, pp.  302,  303.  But  I  see  no  good  ground  for  adopting  the  Western 
text  of  this  passage. 


CHAPTER   XII 

Arrested  in  Jerusalem,  Imprisoned  in  Cesarea 

i.    The  Concession  to  Jewish  Prejudice. 

Luke  says  that  Paul  and  his  companions  were  gladly- 
received  by  the  brethren  in  Jerusalem,1  and  this  brief 
statement  is  all  that  we  learn  regarding  the  recogni- 
tion by  the  Jerusalem  church  of  the  notable  offer- 
ing from  the  Gentile  brethren.  Whether  Paul's 
hopes  were  fulfilled,  that  his  ministration  might  be 
acceptable  to  the  saints,2  whether  the  offering  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  the  Jerusalem  Christians, 
whether  any  expression  of  gratitude  was  sent  to  the 
Gentile  churches,  and  whether  it  had  an  influence  in 
the  subsequent  years  to  strengthen  the  bond  of  sym- 
pathy between  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  believers,  are 
questions  to  which  we  have  no  answers.  But  the  fact 
that  the  Jerusalem  church  is  not  said  to  have  ex- 
pressed any  sympathy  with  Paul  during  his  long 
imprisonment  in  Jerusalem  and  Caesarea,  and  to  have 
made  no  efforts  in  his  behalf,  is  an  indication  that  he 
was   not   regarded   as  a  Christian   brother,  and  so  an 

1  Acts  xxi.  17.  2  Rom.  xv.  31. 

175 


176  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

indication    that    the    offering    had    largely   failed    to 
accomplish  the  desired  ends.1 

On  the  day  after  his  arrival  in  Jerusalem  Paul  and 
his  companions  went  in  unto  James,  the  acknowledged 
head  of  the  church,  and  in  the  presence  of  all  the 
elders  Paul  spoke  of  his  work  among  the  Gentiles.2 
The  reason  for  this  rehearsal  before  James  and  the 
elders  is  not  indicated.  Paul  may  have  been  asked 
to  tell  of  his  work,  or  the  report  may  have  been 
prompted  by  his  desire  to  forestall  hostile  criticism  by 
showing  the  Jewish  brethren  how  God  had  wrought 
through  him,  and  how  genuine  was  the  conversion  of 
the  Gentiles  unto  Christ.  It  became  manifest  at  once 
that  Paul  was  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  majority 
of  believers  in  the  mother  church.  They  had  heard 
that  he  taught  the  Jews  abroad  to  forsake  Moses,  and 
they  manifestly  believed  the  report.  The  elders  after 
a  few  words  of  recognition  and  thanksgiving  to  God, 
proposed  that  Paul  should  set  himself  right  with  the 
church  in  Jerusalem  by  the  public  performance  of  a 
Levitical  ceremony.  The  elders  apparently  assumed 
that  the  report  regarding  Paul  was  false,  and  thought 
it  expedient  that  he  should  give  a  conspicuous  dis- 
avowal of  it.  And  they  had  something  definite  to 
recommend.  There  were  four  Jewish  Christians  who 
had   been  for  a  time  under  a  vow.     The  time  of  the 

1  Comp.  Weizsacker,  p.  368.  8  Acts  xxi.  18,  19. 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  1 77 

vow  was  now  expired,  and  it  was  obligatory  upon  them 
to  cut  their  hair,  and  obtain  Levitical  purification.  It 
was  thought  to  be  a  pious  act  to  defray  the  expense 
of  such  a  purification.  Thus  it  is  said  in  praise  of 
Agrippa  that  he  paid  the  expense  of  purification  for 
a  large  number  of  Nazirites.1 

Paul's  consent  to  this  proposition  was  in  accord 
with  his  position  at  the  council  of  Jerusalem  some 
years  before,  in  accord  also  with  his  missionary  prac- 
tice, and  in  accord  with  his  principle  to  become  alx 
things  to  all  men  and  to  be  careful  not  to  cause  a 
brother  to  stumble.2  At  the  council  of  Jerusalem  he 
admitted  that  the  Jews  might  continue  to  observe  the 
rites  of  the  law,  though  not  thereby  to  secure  salva- 
tion.3 The  Gospel  of  the  circumcision  was  to  remain 
by  the  side  of  the  Gospel  of  the  uncircumcision.  If 
then  the  report  had  been  true,  and  Paul  had  taught  the 
Jews  to  forsake  Moses,  he  would  have  violated  the 
understanding  which  he  had  with  the  elder  apostles. 
But  Paul  according  to  his  letters  and  the  Acts  had 
not  done  this  thing  of  which  he  was  accused.  He 
had  sought  to  bring  the  Jews  to  faith  in  Jesus  as  the 
Messiah,  and  had  taught  that  salvation  was  by  grace 
and  not  by  works  of  the  law.  Thus  he  of  course 
antagonized  the  Pharisaic  view  of  the  law,  but  it 
was  still  true  that  no  part  of  his  energy  was  given  to 

1  Antiquities,  xix.  6.  I.  2  Rom.  xiv.  21.  8  Gal.  ii.  7,  9. 

N 


178  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

positive  teaching  that  Jews  should  forsake  Moses. 
This  was  the  report,  and  this  was  untrue.  Paul  might 
well  engage  in  a  Levitical  rite  by  which  he  would 
declare  that  this  report  was  false.  He  could  not 
affirm  that  he  kept  the  law,  as  the  Jewish  brethren 
said  that  the  proposed  act  would  indicate,1  but  we 
are  not  to  hold  that  he  consented  to  the  proposition 
in  order  to  prove  this.  He  consented  to  the  proposi- 
tion in  order  to  show  that  the  report  concerning  him 
was  false ;  and  the  report  was  not  that  he  taught  the 
Gentiles  that  they  were  free  from  the  law,  and  not 
that  he  himself  failed  to  observe  the  Jewish  rites,  but 
that  he  taught  the  Jews  to  forsake  Moses.  His  act 
accordingly  was  not  an  admission  that  the  observance 
of  the  Mosaic  law  was  necessary  to  salvation  even  for 
a  Jew.  It  was  at  most  an  admission  that  Mosaic  rites 
might  be  means  of  grace.  But  while  Paul  could  thus 
with  good  conscience  consent  to  the  proposition  of 
the  Jewish  brethren,  his  act  might  easily  be  misunder- 
stood. For  to  the  believing  Jews  in  Jerusalem,  who 
were  zealous  for  the  law,  its  observance  was  doubtless 
a  matter  of  conscience.  If  then  they  saw  Paul  go 
through  a  Levitical  rite,  as  one  of  them  would  do, 
they  would  naturally  attribute  to  him  their  own  con- 
viction regarding  its  importance.  But  their  liability 
to  misunderstand  his  act  was  not  a  sufficient  reason 
why  he  should  refuse  to  perform  it. 

1  Acts  xxi.  24. 


ARRESTED   IN  JERUSALEM  179 

2.    Paul  assaulted  by  Jews  and  saved  by  Romans. 

The  well-meant  proposal  of  the  elders  came  very  near 
having  fatal  results  for  Paul.  When  the  seven  days 
appointed  for  the  purification  were  nearly  past,  certain 
Jews  from  Asia,  and  probably  from  Ephesus,  for  they 
knew  Trophimus  the  Ephesian,  recognized  Paul  in  the 
temple,  and  raised  a  tumult  against  him.1  As  Paul 
was  seized  in  the  temple,  two  charges  were  made  against 
him :  first,  that  he  taught  all  men  against  the  people 
{i.e.  the  Jews)  and  the  law  and  the  temple ;  and  second, 
that  he  had  denied  the  holy  place.2  The  first  charge 
was  obviously  false.  Instead  of  alienating  his  Gentile 
converts  from  the  Jewish  believers,  he  had  done  every- 
thing in  his  power  to  secure  from  them  a  generous  con- 
tribution for  the  poor  saints  in  Jerusalem ;  and  though 
his  teaching  of  the  Gospel  implied  that  the  law  and  the 
temple  were  not  necessary  to  salvation,  it  had  never 
been  his  practice  to  make  propaganda  against  Judaism. 
The  second  charge,  that  he  had  defiled  the  temple  by 
bringing  Greeks  into  it,  had  no  other  foundation  than 
the  fact  that  Trophimus  had  been  seen  in  the  city  in 
company  with  Paul.  And  apart  from  Luke's  statement, 
it  is  altogether  improbable  that  Paul  took  an  uncircum- 
cised  Gentile  into  the  temple.  There  was  no  motive 
for  such  an  act,  and  it  would  have  exposed  Trophimus 
to  death  as  well  as  Paul  himself.     There  was  a  law 3 

1  Acts  xxi.  27-29.         2  Acts  xxi.  28.  z  Jewish  War,  V.  5.  2;  VI.  2.  4. 


l8o  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

against  the  entrance  of  a  Gentile  into  the  court  of  Israel, 
and  it  would  have  been  wrong  as  well  as  foolhardy  for 
Paul  to  violate  that  law.  But  the  Jewish  attachment  to 
the  temple  was  fanatical,  and  these  charges  were  sufficient 
to  raise  a  violent  tumult.  Moreover,  there  was  probably 
a  pretty  general  acquaintance  with  the  name  of  Paul  in 
Jerusalem,  and  a  general  feeling  that  he  was  a  renegade. 
The  mob  dragged  Paul  into  the  court  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  sought  to  kill  him.1  His  fate  would  soon  have 
been  like  that  of  Stephen  had  not  the  Roman  guard 
that  was  stationed  in  the  strong  tower  of  Antonia 2  at 
the  northwest  corner  of  the  temple  area  interfered. 
Only  the  most  prompt  and  decided  action  of  the  captain, 
Claudius  Lysias,  saved  Paul  from  death  at  the  hands 
of  an  infuriated  mob.3  The  temple  guard  consisted  of 
a  cohort,  one  tenth  of  a  legion,4  and  numbered  from  five 
to  six  hundred  men.  It  was  trained  to  act  swiftly  and 
with  decision.  The  character  of  the  outbreaks  in  Jeru- 
salem had  taught  the  Romans  that  no  other  method 
would  avail.  The  soldiers  could  reach  the  courts  of 
the  temple  on  an  instant's  warning,  for  the  tower  had 
entrances  into  the  west  and  north  cloisters.4  Their 
intervention,  when  Paul  was  being  mobbed,  was  of 
course  not  out  of  sympathy  with  Paul,  but  only  because 

1  Acts  xxi.  31. 

2  Antiquities,  xv.  II.  4;  Jewish  War,  V.  5.  8. 
8  Acts  xxi.  32.  4  Marquardt,  II.  455,  456. 


ARRESTED  IN   JERUSALEM  l8l 

they  feared  a  tumult.  A  recent  insurrection  under  the 
lead  of  an  Egyptian  may  have  made  the  Roman  force 
especially  watchful.  According  to  Josephus,1  Felix  the 
procurator  had  slain  four  hundred  Jews  at  the  time  of 
this  insurrection,  but  the  leader  had  escaped.  The 
captain  thought  that  the  tumult  over  Paul  might  be  a 
continuation  of  the  recent  rebellion,  and  that  Paul  was 
the  Egyptian.2 

3.    Pauls  Speech  from  the  Castle  Stairs. 

The  enemies  of  Paul  in  Corinth  declared  that  his 
presence  was  weak  and  his  speech  of  no  account,3  but 
these  charges  are  proven  false  by  the  speech  from  the 
stairs  of  Antonia.  There  must  have  been  something 
singularly  impressive  in  the  manner  and  speech  of  Paul 
or  he  could  not  have  quieted  a  howling  mob  who  were 
thirsting  for  his  life.  It  is  also  an  evidence  of  remark- 
able courage  and  quickness  of  thought  that  he  asked 
the  captain  to  allow  him  to  address  the  mob,  and  that 
in  his  condition,  bruised  and  but  just  snatched  from 
beneath  the  feet  of  his  foes,  he  could  at  once  secure 
their  attention.  His  tact  and  perfect  self-possession 
are  manifest  throughout  the  address.  He  spoke  in  a 
respectful  and  reverential  tone  to  the  common  people 
and  the  rabbis  before  him,  who  had  scarcely  recovered 
their  breath  from  their  attempt  to  kill  him.     He  spoke 

1  Antiquities,  xx.  8.  6.  2  Acts  xxi.  38.  3  2  Cor.  x.  10. 


1 82  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

of  his  Pharisaic  training  and  his  hostility  toward  Chris- 
tianity ;  then  of  his  experience  on  the  way  to  Damascus, 
and  the  Lord's  commission  to  him  to  go  to  the  Gentiles. 
This  was  the  course  of  his  apology.  They  had  said 
that  he  taught  men  against  the  Jews  and  the  law  and 
the  temple.  His  reply  was  that  what  he  had  done  he 
had  done  because  of  a  divine  commission  laid  upon  him 
by  the  Messiah  of  the  Jewish  people. 

Paul's  reference  to  his  commission  to  the  Gentiles  was 
the  signal  for  a  fresh  outbreak  of  wrath  which  put  an 
end  to  the  address.1  The  thought  was  intolerable  to 
Jewish  pride  that  the  Messianic  deliverance  should  be 
freely  offered  to  the  Gentiles,  and  so  all  their  time- 
honored  rites  and  ceremonies  be  ignored.  They  did  not 
believe  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  but  it  was  not  His 
name  that  roused  their  passions.  It  was  the  sight  of  a 
Jew  who  claimed  that  the  Jewish  Messiah  had  come, 
and  had  sent  him  to  set  up  His  kingdom  among  the 
Gentiles.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Paul's  reference  to 
Stephen  2  as  the  Lord's  witness  had  begun  to  excite  the 
anger  of  the  hearers,  for  they  believed  that  Stephen  was 
an  enemy  of  God  and  had  deserved  his  terrible  fate. 

When  the  tumult  again  broke  out,  Paul  was  taken  in 
to  Antonia,  and  Lysias,  in  hope  of  eliciting  the  offense 
of  which  his  prisoner  was  guilty,  commanded  that  he 
should  be  scourged.3     It  is  manifest  from  this  that  the 

1  Acts  xxii.  22.  2  Acts  xxii.  20.  8  Acts  xxii.  24. 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  1 83 

captain  had  not  understood  Paul's  Aramaic  address. 
In  that  case  he  would  have  seen  that  Paul's  only  offense 
was  a  religious  belief  which  differed  from  that  of  his 
persecutors.  Paul  was  saved  from  scourging  and 
secured  a  certain  power  over  the  captain  by  the  decla- 
ration of  his  Roman  citizenship,  for  Lysias  had  exceeded 
his  authority  in  commanding  Paul  to  be  bound  and 
scourged.1 

This  address  as  it  stands  in  Acts,  like  the  other 
addresses  attributed  to  Paul,  is  doubtless  in  its  form 
an  artistic  product,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  ground  to 
regard  it  as  a  free  composition.  The  setting  of  the 
address  is  circumstantial,  as  though  from  an  eyewitness, 
and  it  may  well  have  been,  as  Bethge  supposes,2  that 
the  author  of  the  "we"  passages  was  present.  The  con- 
versation between  Paul  and  the  captain,  the  question 
whether  Paul  knew  Greek,  and  whether  he  was  not  the 
Egyptian,  and  Paul's  reply  that  he  was  a  Jew  of  Tarsus, 
a  citizen  of  no  mean  city,3  —  all  this  bears  the  stamp  of 
genuineness.  The  statements  that  Paul  stood  on  the 
stairs  of  Antonia  when  he  spoke,  that  he  beckoned 
with  the  hand  and  secured  great  silence,  and  that  when 
he  spoke  of  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles  the  crowd  inter- 
rupted him,  throwing  off  their  garments,  and  casting 
dust  into  the  air,  —  these  make  a  favorable  impression 

1  Acts  xxii.  25-29.  2  Die  Paulinischen  Reden,  p.  174. 

8  Acts  xxi.  37-39. 


1 84  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

regarding  the  trustworthiness  of  the  entire  narrative. 
The  address  is  also  in  keeping  with  the  situation,  and 
the  new  matter  in  verses  1 7-2 1  can  least  of  all  be  attrib- 
uted to  Luke,  for  in  his  account  of  Paul's  first  visit 
to  Jerusalem  after  his  conversion  he  says  nothing  of  a 
trance,  but  gives  the  hostility  of  the  foreign  Jews  as 
the  reason  why  Paul  left  the  city.  And  since  he  had 
recorded  that  Paul  at  his  conversion  became  con- 
vinced that  his  mission  was  to  the  Gentiles,  it  is  unlikely 
that  he  would  represent  him  as  desiring  to  remain  in 
Jerusalem.  The  entire  address  therefore  appears  to  be 
in  keeping  with  the  situation  in  which  it  is  placed. 

4.    Paid  in  the  Sanliedrin. 

Since  it  was  illegal  for  Lysias  to  seek  to  find  out 
Paul's  offense  by  scourging,  he  brought  him  before 
the  sanhedrin.  This  was  on  the  day  after  the  assault 
upon  Paul  in  the  temple.1  The  fact  that  Lysias 
expected  any  real  information  from  the  sanhedrin 
shows  that  he  was  ignorant  of  Paul's  career  and  of 
the  hatred  which  the  Jews  cherished  toward  him. 
There  was  no  examination  of  Paul,  and  from  the 
nature  of  the  case  there  could  be  none.  Even  the 
form  of  a  trial  was  not  reached,  for  Paul  arrayed 
the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  against  each  other,  and 
the  dissension  which  arose  led  the  captain  to  remove 
Paul.2     The   events   of    the    meeting    are   exceedingly 

1  Acts  xxii.  30.  2  Acts  xxiii.  1-10. 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  1 85 

dramatic,  and  they  are  also  difficult.  Paul  had  appar- 
ently begun  his  defense,  and  had  begun  it  with  the 
statement  that  in  all  which  he  had  done  he  had  acted 
conscientiously.  To  the  high  priest  Ananias  this 
statement  seemed  worthy  of  censure,  and  he  com- 
manded those  who  stood  by  to  smite  Paul  on  the 
mouth.  This  Ananias  was  appointed  high  priest  by 
Herod,  king  of  Chalcis,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Jewish  war  he  miserably  perished  at  the  hands  of 
the  Jews.1  Paul  replied  to  the  injustice  of  the  high 
priest  with  such  words  as  Ananias  was  probably  not 
used  to  hearing  in  regard  to  himself.  He  called  him 
a  whited  wall,  accused  him  of  acting  against  the  law, 
and  threatened  him  with  judgment  from  God.  In 
this  reply,  though  the  provocation  was  very  great, 
Paul  seems  to  have  fallen  below  the  high  standard 
of  his  own  teaching.  He  did  not  seek  to  overcome 
evil  with  good.  His  answer  did  not  illustrate  a  love 
that  is  not  provoked,  and  that  takes  not  account  of 
evil.  His  bearing  is  quite  unlike  that  of  Jesus  in 
similar  circumstances.  When  one  of  the  officers 
struck  Him,  He  replied  with  dignity,  "  If  I  have 
spoken  evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil ;  but  if  well, 
why  smitest  thou  me?"2  When  Paul  was  called  to 
account  for  disrespectful  speech  toward  the  high 
priest,   he  seemed  to  admit  that  he  had  done  wrong, 

1  Jewish  War,  ii.  17.  9.  2  John  xviii.  22,  23. 


1 86  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

but  he  plead  ignorance.  He  says  he  did  not  know 
that  it  was  the  high  priest.  Farrar *  thinks  that  Paul 
may  have  had  imperfect  vision,  and  so  have  failed 
to  recognize  that  the  words  came  from  the  high 
priest.  But  evidence  that  Paul's  vision  was  so  im- 
perfect is  of  an  unsatisfactory  character.  Meyer2 
takes  the  words  of  Paul  as  ironical.  It  is  as  though 
he  had  said,  "  I  did  not  suppose  that  one  who  acted 
in  such  a  manner  could  be  high  priest !  "  But  this 
view  does  not  suit  the  following  citation  from  the 
law,  which  teaches  that  the  ruler,  whether  worthy 
or  unworthy,  must  be  respected  for  the  sake  of  his 
office.  Wendt3  holds  that  Paul  must  have  known 
that  it  was  the  high  priest  who  issued  the  order,  and 
that  the  historian,  failing  to  understand  the  situation, 
has  misrepresented  it.  Bethge  defends  Paul's  words 
on  the  ground  that  the  high  priest  did  not  always 
preside.4  But  it  does  not  seem  probable  that  at  this 
meeting,  called  by  the  Roman  authority  to  consider 
the  case  of  a  man  so  notorious  as  Paul,  the  high 
priest  would  be  lacking,  or  that  any  one  acquainted 
with  the  sanhedrin,  as  Paul  was,  would  assume  that 
he  might  be  absent.     It  seems  to  be  established  that 


1  The  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,  p.  541. 

2  Commentary  on  Acts,  4th  ed.,  pp.  486-488. 

8  Meyer's  Commentary  on  Acts,  7th  ed.,  pp.  481,  482. 
4  Paulinischen  Reden,  pp.  214-217. 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  1 87 

the  high  priest  presided  over  the  sanhedrin,  certainly 
on  all  important  occasions.1 

The  professed  ignorance  of  Paul,  therefore,  cannot 
be  very  satisfactorily  explained ;  but  that  he  was 
actually  ignorant  rather  than  merely  made  to  appear 
so  by  Luke  seems  on  the  whole  probable. 

After  this  unpropitious  opening  Paul  is  said  to 
have  taken  advantage  of  the  well-known  hostility  of 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  and  to  have  turned  it  to 
his  own  defense.  He  declared  that  he  was  a  Phari- 
see and  sprung  from  a  Pharisaic  ancestry,  and  that 
he  was  now  on  trial  because  of  his  belief  in  the 
resurrection.  The  immediate  result  of  this  utterance 
was  a  great  clamor  and  dissension  between  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees,  and  then  the  removal  of  Paul  by  the 
captain  lest  he  should  be  torn  in  pieces.  This  inci- 
dent also  is  one  which  is  extremely  difficult  to  under- 
stand and  to  justify.  Was  it  ingenuous  in  Paul  to 
say  that  he  was  a  Pharisee  ?  And  was  it  quite  true 
that  he  was  on  trial  because  of  his  belief  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  And,  finally,  was  it  right 
to  provoke  a  quarrel  between  Pharisees  and  Sad- 
ducees in  order  to  deliver  himself  ? 

An  affirmative  answer  to  the  first  of  these  questions 
is  relatively  easy.  In  relation  to  the  Sadducees  and 
their  faith  Paul  must  say  that  he  was  a  Pharisee.  On 
1  Schurer,  II.  155-158. 


1 88  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  he  shared  the  common 
Pharisaic  view. 

It  is  more  difficult  to  understand  how  Paul  could  say 
that  he  was  on  trial  because  of  his  belief  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead.  This  statement  indeed  appears  to 
be  partially  defensible  on  the  ground  that  Paul  regarded 
the  doctrine  of  resurrection  as  central  in  Christianity, 
and  therefore  since  he  was  obnoxious  to  the  Jews 
because  he  was  a  Christian,  he  might  with  some  pro- 
priety say  that  the  hostility  was  due  to  his  position 
on  this  central  teaching.  But  this,  after  all,  is  a  poor 
defense.  It  would  account  only  for  the  hostility  of  the 
Sadducees,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  opposition 
to  Paul  had  come  from  Sadducees.  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  plain  that  it  came  from  the  zealous  defenders  of  the 
law,  and  they  were  Pharisees.  Then,  further,  it  is  a 
poor  defense,  because  Paul  says  in  substance  that  he  is 
on  trial  for  holding  the  faith  of  the  Pharisees.  He 
makes  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  central  in  Chris- 
tianity, and  then  practically  identifies  his  position  on 
this  doctrine  with  the  position  of  the  Pharisees.  But 
it  is  certain  that  the  Jewish  persecution  of  Paul  had 
sprung  out  of  the  radical  difference  between  the  Phari- 
sees and  himself. 

Finally,  it  is  doubtful  whether  much  can  be  said  in 
defense  of  Paul's  course,  when,  to  deliver  himself,  he 
threw  down  an  apple  of  discord  between  the  ranks  of 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  1 89 

the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees.  Had  he  been  torn  in 
pieces,  as  the  chief  captain  feared  he  would  be,  one 
would  have  been  obliged  to  say  that  his  destruction  was 
due  to  his  own  mistake.  He  had  invoked  the  mutual 
hostility  of  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  and  had  himself 
been  consumed  by  the  flame.  We  must  therefore 
admit,  if  we  hold  the  account  in  Acts  to  be  historical, 
that,  as  Peter  made  a  serious  mistake  in  Antioch,  for 
which  Paul  called  him  to  account  in  a  public  way,  so 
Paul,  before  the  sanhedrin,  made  a  mistake,  for  which 
Peter,  had  he  been  present,  might  have  called  him  to 
account.  The  event  then  illustrates  what  the  apostle 
said  to  the  Lycaonians,  "  We  also  are  men  of  like  pas- 
sions with  you,"  and  what  he  said  to  the  Philippians 
at  a  later  day,  "  I  count  not  myself  yet  to  have 
apprehended." 

5.    Paul's  final  Departure  from  Jerusalem. 

The  shield  which  the  Pharisees  of  the  sanhedrin 
extended  over  Paul  did  not  bring  safety  to  him.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  it  was  withdrawn  as  suddenly  as  it 
had  been  extended.  However  that  may  have  been,  the 
next  day  brought  forth  a  conspiracy  to  assassinate  Paul 
in  which  more  than  forty  men  were  banded  together.1 
This  did  not  originate  with  members  of  the  sanhedrin, 
for  the  conspirators  asked  the  chief  priests  and  elders 
to  aid  them,2  but  it  may  well  have  originated  with  those 

1  Acts  xxiii.  12,  13.  a  Acts  xxiii.  15. 


190  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

Jews  from  Asia  who  had  sought  to  kill  Paul  in  the  court 
of  the  temple,  and  had  been  baffled  in  their  attempt. 
We  may  suppose  that  the  aid  which  the  conspirators 
asked  was  promised  as  far  as  the  chief  priests  and  elders 
could  render  it,  for  two  years  later  the  chief  priests  and 
the  principal  men  of  the  Jews  were  themselves  authors 
of  a  conspiracy  to  kill  Paul.1 

But  as  on  so  many  former  occasions,  so  now,  Paul 
was  providentially  saved  from  the  wrath  of  the  Jews. 
His  nephew,  apparently  a  young  lad,2  learned  of  the 
plot,  perhaps  because  his  mother  was  one  of  the  un- 
believing Jews,  though  this  of  course  cannot  be  affirmed. 
A  plot  of  more  than  forty  men  in  a  city  where  the 
popular  sentiment  was  nearly  all  one  way  might  easily 
leak  out.  The  boy,  who  had  learned  of  the  plot,  made 
it  known  to  his  uncle,  and  then  to  the  captain.  In  the 
meantime  Paul  had  become  assured  that  his  life  was 
not  to  be  terminated  in  Jerusalem,  as  he  had  feared  in 
the  last  weeks,3  and  that  he  was  to  witness  for  Christ 
in  Rome.4  This  assurance  came  to  him  in  a  night 
vision.  The  act  of  the  captain  in  providing  prompt  and 
adequate  escort  for  Paul  to  Caesarea  is  worthy  of  all 
praise.5  He  gave  his  prisoner  the  full  benefit  of  his 
Roman  citizenship.  The  size  of  the  escort,  four  hun- 
dred foot-soldiers  and  seventy  mounted  men,  measures 

1  Acts  xxv.  2,  3.  2  Acts  xxiii.  19.  8  Acts  xxi.  13. 

*  Acts  xxiii.  11.  6  Acts  xxiii.  23,  24. 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  191 

his  sense  of  the  danger  of  an  attempt  to  seize  Paul. 
The  entire  escort  went  as  far  as  Antipatris,  forty-two 
miles,  and  from  that  place  the  infantry  returned.  From 
Antipatris  to  Caesarea,  a  distance  of  twenty-six  miles, 
Paul  was  guarded  by  the  seventy  mounted  soldiers.1 
The  letter  which  was  sent  with  the  prisoner  declared 
that  he  had  done  nothing  worthy  of  death,  or  even  of 
bonds.2  And  yet  the  captain  felt  that  he  could  not  at 
once  dismiss  the  case  and  release  Paul. 

6.    Two  Years  in  Ccesarea. 

The  official  residence  of  the  procurators  of  Judea 
was  Caesarea,  a  city  built  by  Herod  the  Great,  named 
for  the  emperor,  and  adorned  with  a  splendid  temple 
for  his  worship.3  When  Paul  was  brought  a  prisoner 
to  Caesarea,  the  palace  of  Herod,  which  was  now  the 
residence  of  the  procurator,  was  occupied  by  Antonius 
Felix.  He  had  been  appointed  by  Claudius,  and  ac- 
cording to  Josephus4  in  the  twelfth  year  of  that  em- 
peror, hence  in  52  a.d.  He  was  married  to  Drusilla, 
daughter  of  Agrippa  I.,  whom  he  had  alienated  from 
her  husband  Azizus  by  means  of  the  wiles  of  a  cer- 
tain magician  named  Simon.  This  woman  and  her 
only  son,  Agrippa,  perished  in  the  eruption  of  Ve- 
suvius 5  in  79  a.d.     Felix  had  been  a  slave,  and  Taci- 

1  Acts  xxiii.  32.  2  Acts  xxiii.  29.  8  Antiquities,  xvi.  5.  1. 

4  Antiquities,  xx.  7.  1.  6  Antiquities,  xx.  7.  I,  2. 


I92  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

tus1  says  that  he  retained  the  temper  of  a  slave  after 
he  had  been  set  free  and  clothed  with  great  power. 
He  was  a  man  of  lust  and  blood.  The  only  remedy 
which  he  had  for  the  disorders  and  crimes  of  Judea 
was  force.  He  crucified  great  numbers  of  robbers, 
but  this  seemed  to  intensify  the  bitterness  of  the  Jews 
toward  Rome.2 

The  Jews  of  Jerusalem  who  led  the  opposition  to 
Paul  followed  him  to  Caesarea  as  soon  as  possible. 
As  they  were  to  bring  their  case  before  the  Roman 
procurator,  they  took  with  them  a  trained  advocate, 
who,  to  judge  from  his  name,  Tertullus,  was  a  Roman. 
According  to  Luke's  abstract  of  the  case,  Tertullus 
preferred  three  charges  against  Paul :  first,  he  created 
insurrections  among  the  Jews  everywhere ;  second,  he 
was  a  leader  of  the  Nazarenes ;  and  third,  he  tried 
to  profane  the  temple.3  The  charges  of  Tertullus 
were  supported  by  Ananias  and  the  elders.  The 
defence  of  Paul  involves  four  points : 4  first,  the 
charge  that  he  is  an  insurrectionist  cannot  be  proven ; 
second,  he  admits  that  he  is  a  Nazarene,  but  denies 
that  this  is  contrary  to  the  law ;  third,  he  was  in  the 
temple  in  a  lawful  manner,  and  the  Jews  of  Asia  who 
charged  him  with  defiling  the  temple  ought  to  have 
been  present  to  make  their  accusation ;  and  fourth,  the 

1  History,  v.  9.  8  Acts  xxiv.  5,  6. 

a  Jewish  War,  ii.  13.  2,  7.  4  Acts  xxiv.  10-21. 


ARRESTED   IN   JERUSALEM  193 

council  in  Jerusalem  had  found  nothing  against  him. 
The  accusation  of  Tertullus  and  the  defence  of  Paul 
agreed  essentially  with  the  letter  of  Lysias,  and  Felix 
had  no  ground  for  continuing  Paul  in  prison.  If  he 
had  previously  had  only  vague  notions  regarding 
Christianity  and  its  political  significance,  he  was  now 
better  informed,  having  heard  Paul's  defense,  and  yet 
for  some  unknown  reason  he  deferred  judgment.  He 
promised  to  determine  the  matter  when  Lysias  should 
come  to  Caesarea,1  although  Lysias  had  already  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  and  had  declared  Paul  innocent. 
This  reference  to  Lysias  may  have  been  a  device  for 
turning  away  the  Jews,  an  excuse  for  the  temporary 
dismissal  of  the  case,  and  need  not  imply  that  Felix 
was  in  doubt  regarding  Paul's  innocence  and  was  wait- 
ing for  further  light.  There  is  no  record  that  Lysias 
ever  came  down  to  Caesarea,  or  that  Felix  made  any 
effort  to  have  him  come.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
Jews  waited  long  in  Caesarea  on  such  an  uncertainty. 
They  returned  to  Jerusalem  with  the  small  satisfac- 
tion that  if  Paul  was  still  alive,  he  at  least  was  not 
preaching  and  destroying  the  influence  of  Moses. 
They  seemed  to  have  attempted  nothing  further  for 
two  years. 

During  this  period  Paul  had  large  liberty.     He  was 
constantly  guarded  by  a  centurion,  but  his  friends  had 

1  Acts  xxiii.  22. 


194  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

unimpeded  access  to  him.1  Luke  records  nothing  out 
of  these  two  years  save  that  Felix  summoned  Paul 
several  times  and  heard  him  concerning  the  faith  in 
Christ,  and  communed  with  him.2  On  one  occasion, 
Drusilla,  the  wife  of  Felix,  was  present,  and  Paul 
preached  so  directly  and  forcibly  to  the  conscience  of 
the  procurator  that  he  was  terrified.  The  impression, 
however,  was  superficial,  like  that  which  the  Baptist 
made  upon  Herod  Antipas.  Paul's  reasoning  upon 
righteousness  did  not  deter  Felix  from  seeking  bribes 
from  his  prisoner. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Paul  did  any  evangelistic 
work  during  the  Caesarean  imprisonment,  as  he  did 
later  when  imprisoned  in  Rome ;  neither  do  we  know 
of  any  letters  that  were  written  from  the  palace  of 
Felix.3  Indeed,  it  is  altogether  doubtful  whether  he 
would  have  felt  at  liberty  to  preach  in  Palestine,  unless 
to  Gentiles,  for  his  agreement  with  the  elder  apostles 
at  the  conference  in  Jerusalem  was  that  he  should  go 
to  the  Gentiles.  Thus  the  two  years  in  Caesarea  are 
an  almost  complete  blank  in  our  knowledge  of  the 
career  of  Paul. 

1  Acts  xxiv.  23.  2  Acts  xxiv.  24-27. 

8  See  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I.  310-319,  for  the  latest  statement  of  the  argu- 
ment that  the  letters  to  the  Colossians,  Philemon,  and  the  Ephesians  were 
written  from  Rome. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Journey  to  Rome  in  Bonds 

I.    The  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

Porcius  Festus1  succeeded  Felix  by  the  appointment 
of  Nero,  and  this,  as  we  seek  to  show  in  Appendix  II., 
was  somewhere  between  the  years  58  and  60  a.d.  As 
a  matter  of  policy,  he  at  once  visited  Jerusalem,  the 
most  important  city  of  his  province,  and  the  chief 
priests  and  principal  men  besought  him  to  have  Paul 
sent  to  Jerusalem  for  trial.2  It  is  quite  plain  that  they 
had  not  forgotten  Paul,  but  were  only  waiting  for  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  destroy  him.  They  may  well 
have  hoped  that  Festus  would  grant  their  request.  He 
had  just  reached  his  province,  and  would  naturally 
desire  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  people.  Moreover,  the 
request  came  from  the  principal  men  of  Jerusalem, 
whom  Festus,  if  he  desired  a  calm  administration, 
would  be  loth  to  offend.  It  is  plain  that  the  Jews  had 
no  longer  any  hope  of  securing  the  condemnation  of 
Paul  in  a  fair  trial  before  a  Roman  ruler;  for  when  they 

1  Antiquities,  xx.  8,  9;  Jewish  War,  ii.  14.  1. 

2  Acts  xxv.  1,  2. 

*95 


196  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

besought  Festus  to  transfer  him  to  Jerusalem,  it  was 
that  they  might  kill  him  on  the  way.1  It  is  to  the 
credit  of  Festus  that  he  had  sufficient  firmness  to 
refuse  this  request.  Of  course  he  knew  nothing  of 
the  plot,  and  may  have  known  nothing  of  the  par- 
ticulars of  Paul's  case.  But  his  official  residence  was 
in  Cassarea,  and  Paul  was  a  Roman  citizen.  Plainly, 
therefore,  that  was  the  appropriate  place  for  his  trial, 
and  the  procurator  may  have  felt  that  there  would  be 
danger  of  a  tumult  if  the  prisoner  was  taken  to  Jeru- 
salem. He  could  easily  see  from  the  spirit  and  tone 
of  the  accusation  that  there  was  intense  feeling  against 
Paul,  and  he  doubtless  had  some  knowledge  of  the 
fanatical  character  of  the  Jewish  people  of  his  time. 
So  he  refused  the  request  of  the  principal  men,  and 
gave  the  becoming  reply  that  they  should  come  to 
Csesarea,  and  there  make  their  accusation  against 
Paul.2  It  appears  from  what  Festus  afterwards  said 
to  Agrippa  that,  in  his  thought,  to  have  sent  Paul 
to  Jerusalem  as  the  Jews  requested  would  practically 
have  been  to  surrender  him  to  his  accusers  without 
trial.3 

The  trial  came  off  as  soon  as  Festus  had  returned 
to  Caesarea.  This  time  the  Jews  had  no  hired  advo- 
cate, as  in  the  trial  two  years  before,  but  presented 
their  own  case.     The  "  many  and   grievous "  charges 

1  Acts  xxv.  3.  2  Acts  xxv.  4,  5.  8  Acts  xxv.  15,  16. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  ROME  IN  BONDS       1 97 

which  they  brought  against  the  prisoner  may  be 
inferred  from  Luke's  outline  of  Paul's  reply.  He 
declared  that  he  had  not  sinned  against  the  law  of 
the  Jews,  the  temple,  or  Caesar.1  Therefore  we  judge 
that  their  charges  had  concerned  these  points,  and  so 
were  partly  religious  and  partly  political.  But  the 
evidence  which  the  Jews  presented  was  not  strong 
enough  to  justify  the  condemnation  of  Paul,  as  Festus 
himself  told  Agrippa  at  a  later  day.2  Indeed,  he  said 
that  he  had  no  certain  thing  to  write  unto  Caesar, 
that  is,  of  all  the  charges  that  the  Jews  had  brought 
against  Paul  there  was  not  one  which  Festus  was 
willing  to  send  up  to  the  supreme  court  with  the 
prisoner.3  According  to  Luke's  report  of  the  words 
of  Festus  he  might  have  set  Paul  at  liberty  after 
this  first  hearing  of  the  case,  and  indeed  ought  to 
have  done  so.  If  nothing  was  proved  against  the 
prisoner  which  rendered  him  obnoxious  to  the  Roman 
law,  then  Festus  had  no  right  to  keep  him  in  bonds. 
But  he  withheld  judgment  to  please  the  Jews,  and 
asked  Paul  whether  he  would  go  to  Jerusalem  and 
there  be  judged,  that  is,  have  his  case  transferred  to 
the  Jewish  court.  What  he  at  first  refused,  he  now 
proposes.  He  had  come  to  see  how  formidable  the 
opposition  to  Paul  was,  and  seemed  ready  to  swerve 

1  Acts  xxv.  8.  a  Acts  xxv.  25. 

8  Acts  xxv.  26. 


198  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

from  the  plain  course  of  right  in  order  to  gain  favor 
with  the  Jews.1 

In  these  circumstances  there  was  but  one  thing 
left  for  Paul  to  do.  To  go  to  Jerusalem  was  death. 
Therefore  since  he  could  not  secure  acquittal  in 
Caesarea,  he  must  appeal  to  Caesar.  Accordingly, 
after  declaring  that  his  case  could  not  be  transferred 
from  the  Roman  judgment  seat,  since  it  had  not  been 
proven  that  he  had  done  any  wrong  to  the  Jews,  he 
pronounced  the  words  which  as  a  Roman  citizen  he 
was  entitled  to  speak,2  "  I  appeal  to  Caesar."  Festus 
conferred  with  his  councillors,  apparently  to  ascertain 
whether  there  was  any  reason  why  Paul's  appeal 
should  not  be  granted.  Having  become  assured  that 
the  prisoner  might  appeal  to  Caesar,  Festus  returned 
to  the  judgment  seat  and  formally  transferred  the 
case  to  the  supreme  court  in  Rome. 

A  single  notable  event  took  place  in  the  interval 
before  the  prisoner  could  be  sent  to  the  capital. 
King  Agrippa  II.,  a  great-grandson  of  Herod  the 
Great,  came  to  Caesarea  with  his  sister  Bernice,  with 
whom  he  lived  in  an  unlawful  manner.3  As  he  was 
devoted  to  Rome  he  had  come  down  from  his  capi- 
tal,   Caesarea   Philippi,  to   salute   the   new   procurator. 

1  Acts  xxv.  9. 

2  Mommsen,  Romisches  Staatsrecht,  II.  269;  Schurer,  II.  539;  I.  388- 
391.  8  Antiquities,  xx.  7.  3. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO   ROME  IN  BONDS  199 

Agrippa  heard  of  Paul's  case  from  Festus,  and  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  hear  him.  Festus  of  course  granted 
the  king's  request,  and  did  it  with  especial  gladness 
because  he  hoped  to  get  from  the  hearing  before 
Agrippa  something  definite  to  write  to  the  emperor.1 
Agrippa  was  expert  in  all  customs  and  questions  of 
the  Jews,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Paul,  which 
is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  Josephus  conferred  with 
him  in  regard  to  his  Jewish  War?  The  apology  of 
Paul  before  Agrippa  traverses  ground  with  which  we 
have  already  become  familiar.  As  in  the  address  from 
the  castle  stairs,  Paul  speaks  of  his  early  life  and 
education,  of  his  career  as  a  persecutor  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  of  his  conversion  on  the  way  to  Damascus, 
and  of  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles.  His  statement  of 
the  ground  of  his  accusation  by  the  Jews  is  remarkable. 
It  is  manifestly  not  the  ground  which  his  enemies 
urged,  but  Paul  may  have  regarded  it  as  the  real 
underlying  cause  of  their  hostility.  He  says  he  is 
accused  concerning  the  hope  of  the  Messianic  promise, 
a  promise  to  whose  realization  all  the  tribes  hoped  to 
attain.3  For  him  that  promise  has  been  realized  in 
Jesus,  whose  Messiahship  is  proven  by  his  resurrec- 
tion. Therefore  he  is  accused  because  he  sees  the 
fulfilment  of  Israel's  hope  in  Jesus.  No  such  formal 
charge  had  ever  been  brought  against  Paul,  it  is  true, 

1  Acts  xxv.  26.  2  Schiirer,  I.  500.  3  Acts  xxvi.  6,  7. 


200  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

but  in  his  judgment  the  various  accusations  made 
against  him,  as  that  he  taught  the  people  against 
Moses,  that  he  was  an  insurrectionist,  and  had  pro- 
faned the  temple,  all  sprang  out  of  this  root.  The 
Jews  had  seized  him  and  tried  to  kill  him  because  in 
obedience  to  a  heavenly  vision  he  had  preached  Jesus 
as  Messiah  to  Jew  and  Gentile  alike.  This  is  Paul's 
analysis  of  the  reason  of  Jewish  hostility.  The  real 
reason  is  no  one  of  the  superficial  charges  which  they 
have  brought  against  him  :  it  is  the  fundamental  fact 
that  he  holds  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  be  the  promised 
Messiah,  and  is  giving  his  life  to  the  propagation  of 
that  belief. 

This  apology  was  not  expected  to  alter  the  legal  status 
of  Paul's  case,  and  as  far  as  can  be  seen  it  did  not  fur- 
nish Festus  with  any  clear  charges  to  send  to  Rome 
with  the  prisoner.  Indeed,  Festus  seems  to  have  be- 
come more  deeply  convinced  that  Paul  was  merely  a 
religious  fanatic.  His  story  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
was  probably  that  which  made  the  Roman  think  he  was 
insane.1     As  for  Agrippa,  he  pronounced  Paul  innocent.2 

2.    From   Cczsarca  to  Myra. 

The  military  escort  that  conducted  Paul  to  Rome 
consisted  of  a  centurion  by  the  name  of  Julius,  and  a 
considerable,    though    indefinite,   number   of    soldiers.3 

1  Acts  xxvi.  24.  2  Acts  xxvi.  32.  8  Acts  xxvii.  31,  42. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO   ROME   IN   BONDS  201 

Julius  belonged  to  the  Augustan  cohort,  a  common  hono- 
rary designation  of  a  company  of  soldiers,1  which  in  this 
instance  may  have  distinguished  the  cohort  from  the 
other  four  which  were  stationed  in  Csesarea.2  Julius 
appears  in  the  narrative  as  a  high-minded  man.  He 
appreciated  the  nobility  of  his  prisoner,  and  treated  him 
with  kindness  and  consideration.  He  gave  heed  to  the 
master  and  to  the  owner  of  the  ship,  in  the  matter  of 
setting  sail  from  Fair  Havens,  rather  than  to  Paul, 
but  this  was  altogether  natural.3  He  acted  on  Paul's 
advice  when  the  sailors  sought  to  escape  from  the  ship, 
and  ordered  his  soldiers  to  cut  the  ropes  and  let  the 
boat  fall  into  the  sea.4  It  was  his  regard  for  Paul  that 
led  him  to  oppose  the  counsel  of  the  soldiers,  when  the 
ship  began  to  break  up,  which  was  to  kill  the  prisoners 
lest  they  should  escape.5 

Paul  was  accompanied  on  his  voyage  to  Rome  by 
Luke,  the  physician,  and  Aristarchus,  a  Macedonian  of 
Thessalonica,  both  old  and  tried  friends.6  Ramsay 
thinks  they  must  have  gone  as  slaves  of  Paul,  but  this 
is  not  quite  self-evident,  and  there  is  no  proof  of  it. 
The  case  of  Arria,  wife  of  Paetus,  who  was  not  allowed 
to  accompany  her  husband  when  he  was  sent  to  Rome 

1  Schiirer,  I.  385;   Marquardt,  II.  435,  note  5. 

2  Jewish  War,  iii.  4.  2.  *  Acts  xxvii.  30-32. 
8  Acts  xxvii.  n.  6  Acts  xxvii.  43. 

6  Acts  xxvii.  2;   xx.  4. 


202  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

for  trial,  surely  cannot  be  taken  to  prove  that  no  pris- 
oner sent  to  Rome  was  allowed  to  have  friends  go  with 
him  unless,  forsooth,  they  were  willing  to  go  as  slaves. 
Ramsay  also  argues  that  Luke  and  Aristarchus  must 
have  gone  as  slaves  from  the  fact  that  much  respect 
was  shown  to  Paul,  such  as  a  "  penniless  traveller  with- 
out a  servant  to  attend  on  him  "  would  never  receive, 
either  in  the  first  century  or  the  nineteenth !  We  are 
of  the  opinion,  on  the  contrary,  that  a  man  like  Paul  is 
sure  to  gain  the  respect  of  all  fair-minded  people  such 
as  Julius,  and  that  the  circumstance  of  having  or  not 
having  a  servant  is  too  trivial  to  be  thought  of.  And 
we  remember  that  Paul  gained  the  respect  of  many 
worthy  people  throughout  the  eastern  provinces  of  the 
Roman  empire,  Jews,  Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Macedonians, 
and  at  that  time,  far  from  having  servants  to  wait  on 
him,  he  usually  supported  himself  by  his  own  hands. 

When  Julius  and  his  prisoners  —  for  there  were  others 
besides  Paul  —  embarked  at  Caesarea,  it  was  in  a  ship 
of  Adramyttium  which  was  on  its  homeward  voyage.1 
There  was  no  ship  in  the  Caesarean  harbor  that  was 
bound  for  Rome,  but  the  centurion  might  expect  to  find 
such  a  vessel  in  some  one  of  the  larger  ports  on  the 
coast  of  Asia.  On  the  second  day  out  from  Caesarea 
the  ship  touched  at  Sidon,  and  Paul  was  allowed  to  go 
on  shore  and  to  receive  attention  from  Christian  breth- 

1  Acts  xxvii.  2. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO   ROME   IN   BONDS  203 

ren.1     These  were  the  last  whom  he  saw,  excepting  his 
companions  in  travel,  until  he  arrived  in  Puteoli. 

The  second  harbor  which  their  ship  made,  as  they 
sailed  through  the  sea  of  Cilicia,2  with  Cyprus  on  the 
left,  was  that  of  Myra  in  Lycia.  By  a  direct  course 
this  was  a  voyage  of  500  miles.  Here  Julius  found  a 
large  vessel  of  Alexandria  which  was  bound  for  Italy, 
and  he  transferred  his  prisoners  to  it.3  We  can  judge 
of  the  size  of  the  ship  from  the  fact  that  it  carried 
276  passengers  besides  a  cargo  of  wheat.4  It  is  com- 
puted to  have  been  of  500  tons'  burden,5  a  light  tonnage 
when  compared  with  modern  steamers  some  of  which 
have  a  displacement  of  10,000  tons.  But  still  the  ships 
of  the  Mediterranean  in  Paul's  time  were  large  to  be 
navigated  with  sails,  and  the  sailors  were  courageous 
to  cross  the  Mediterranean  without  chart  or  compass. 

3.   From  Myra  to  Malta. 

The  Alexandrian  ship  set  sail  for  Italy,  but  after  a 
slow  voyage  of  325  miles  it  was  glad  to  find  shelter 
from  strong  head  winds  in  the  harbor  of  Fair  Havens 
on  the  south  of  Crete.  Here  they  were  constrained 
to  remain  until  the  season  was  so  far  advanced  that 
it  was   considered   dangerous   to  cross    the   sea.     The 

1  Acts  xxvii.  3.  3  Acts  xxvii.  6. 

2  Acts  xxvii.  4,  5.  4  Acts  xxvii.  37,  38. 

5  Conybeare  and  Howson,  The  Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  627, 
note  2. 


204  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

Fast,  that  is,  the  Day  of  Atonement,  was  past,1  and 
navigation  of  the  Mediterranean  was  regarded  as 
closed.  But  as  the  harbor  of  Fair  Havens  was  not 
a  desirable  one  in  which  to  winter,  and  as  there  was 
a  better  one  about  forty  miles  further  west,2  it  was  de- 
cided, after  considerable  consultation,  to  try  to  gain  it. 
It  is  suggestive  that  the  prisoner  Paul  had  an  opinion 
regarding  the  wisdom  of  leaving  Fair  Havens,  and 
also  that  he  was  allowed  to  express  it.3  We  are  to 
suppose  that  this  counsel  was  based  on  Paul's  nautical 
knowledge.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  good  deal  of 
experience  on  the  sea,  for  in  his  second  letter  to  the 
Corinthians  he  says  that  he  had  suffered  shipwreck 
three  times.4  His  counsel  was  wise,  as  the  result 
showed,  but  his  prediction  that  there  would  be  a  loss 
of  life  was  not  fulfilled.  Soon  after  putting  to  sea 
from  Fair  Havens  the  ship  was  struck  by  a  hurricane 
from  the  northeast,  and  for  fourteen  days  it  was 
driven,  partly  unrigged  and  helpless.5  The  sailors  did 
not  see  the  sun  by  day  nor  the  stars  by  night,  and 
so  could  not  calculate  where  they  were,  or  whither 
they  were  going.6  The  single  bright  incident  in  the 
dark  and  hopeless  days  was  Paul's  vision  and  conse- 
quent words  of  cheer.7     An  angel  appeared  to  him  in 

1  Acts  xxvii.  9.  *  2  Cor.  xi.  25. 

2  Acts  xxvii.  12.  5  Acts  xxvii.  15,  27,  29. 
8  Acts  xxvii.  9,  10.                      6  Acts  xxvii.  20. 

7  Acts  xxvii.  21-26. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO   ROME   IN   BONDS  205 

his  dream  and  gave  him  the  twofold  assurance  that 
he  should  reach  his  destination,  and  that  all  other 
persons  on  the  ship  should  be  delivered  from  the 
storm  and  sea.  This  vision  as  far  as  it  concerned 
Paul  was  a  repetition  of  the  one  which  he  had  had 
two  years  before  in  Jerusalem.1  As  regards  his  fel- 
low-voyagers it  contradicted  the  announcement  which 
Paul  had  made  in  Fair  Havens,2  that  there  would  be 
a  loss  of  life.  The  next  day  after  this  vision  Paul  ex- 
horted all  on  board  to  be  of  good  cheer.  He  added, 
as  though  on  his  own  authority  and  not  as  a  part  of 
the  angel's  message,  that  they  must  be  cast  upon  a 
certain  island.  He  seemed  not  to  know  the  name  of 
the  island,  but  only  to  be  assured  that  the  ship,  in- 
stead of  making  any  port,  would  run  aground,  and 
that  on  the  shore  of  an  island. 

Another  incident  which  shows  that  Paul,  though  a 
prisoner,  was  the  leading  person  on  the  ship,  occurred 
in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  night  after  they  left 
Crete.3  The  sailors  had  lowered  the  life  boat  under 
pretence  of  laying  out  anchors  from  the  foreship,  and 
intended  to  push  off  and  abandon  the  ship.4  They 
felt  sure  that  land  was  not  far  away,  and  knew  that 
it  was  safer  to  approach  it  in  a  small  boat  than  in  the 
ship.     Paul  saw  the  plan  of  the  sailors,  and  immedi- 

1  Acts  xxiii.  ii.  8  Acts  xxvii.  27. 

2  Acts  xxvii.  10.  4  Acts  xxvii.  30. 


206  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

ately  exposed  it  to  the  centurion,  and  he  ordered  the 
soldiers  to  cut  the  boat's  ropes  and  let  it  fall  into  the 
sea.1  Thus  it  appears  that  Paul,  though  he  had  re- 
ceived angelic  assurance  that  he  should  reach  Rome, 
and  that  no  lives  should  be  lost,  was  on  watch  at 
midnight,  and  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep  the 
sailors  on  board,  if  all  were  to  be  saved. 

In  the  same  night  another  event  took  place  which 
was  equally  characteristic  of  Paul.  He  besought  all 
on  board  to  take  food.  He  declared  that  not  one 
should  perish  or  suffer  any  physical  loss.2  Then  when 
he  had  given  thanks  for  the  food,  he  began  to  eat, 
and  the  others  inspired  by  his  example  took  food  and 
were  of  good  cheer.3  In  the  morning,  as  they  were 
seeking  to  bring  the  ship  to  the  shore,  it  grounded, 
and  soon  began  to  be  broken  by  the  violence  of  the 
waves.  At  this  juncture  the  soldiers  were  in  favor  of 
killing  the  prisoners  lest  any  of  them  should  escape 
when  the  ship  went  to  pieces,  for  if  the  prisoners  es- 
caped the  guards  would  be  held  responsible.  Julius, 
however,  refused  the  proposal  of  the  soldiers,  and 
chose  rather  to  take  the  risk  of  the  prisoners  escap- 
ing from  him.4  And  thus  by  interposing  to  save  Paul's 
life,  Julius  repaid  in  part  the  service  which  Paul  had 
rendered   to   all   on   board.     His   confidence   seems  to 

1  Acts  xxvii.  32.  8  Acts  xxvii.  35,  36. 

2  Acts  xxvii.  34.  4  Acts  xxvii.  43. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  ROME  IN  BONDS       207 

have  been  rewarded,  for  though  all  were  separated 
and  each  got  to  land  as  best  he  could,  there  is  no 
record  that  any  of  the  prisoners  attempted  to  escape 
from  Julius. 

4.    From  Malta  to  Puteoli. 

The  island  of  Melita  on  which  the  shipwrecked 
people  found  themselves  has  been  almost  universally 
identified  with  Malta,  an  island  17^  miles  long  and 
9^  miles  wide,  lying  south  of  Sicily  about  58  miles; 
and  St.  Paul's  Bay  on  the  north  side  of  the  island 
has  been  shown  to  answer  in  a  remarkable  way  the 
requirements  of  the  narrative  for  the  very  place  of 
the  wreck.1  The  direction  of  the  wind  which  struck 
the  ship  off  the  coast  of  Crete  and  drove  it  under  the 
lee  of  Cauda2  points  to  Malta.  The  fact  that  an 
Alexandrian  ship  wintered  in  one  of  the  harbors  of 
the  island  points  to  Malta,  which  had  excellent  har- 
bors, rather  than  to  Meleda,  the  only  other  island  whose 
name  allows  it  to  be  considered  as  the  scene  of  the 
wreck  of  Paul's  ship.  For  this  Meleda  is  far  up  on 
the  coast  of  Illyria,  and  not  a  likely  place  for  a  ship 
to  winter  that  was  bound  from  Alexandria  to  Puteoli 
and  other  ports  on  the  west  coast  of  Italy.  Moreover, 
the  identification  of  Melita  with  Malta  is  further  some- 

1  James  Smith,  The  Voyage  and  Shipwreck  of  St.  Paul,  4th  ed.  1880, 
pp.  129-147.  2  Acts  xxvii.  14-16. 


208  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

what  confirmed  by  the  discovery  of  an  inscription  on 
Malta  in  which  a  certain  Roman  is  called  the  first 
of  the  Melitseans,  the  very  term  which  Luke  uses 
when  he  speaks  of  Publius.1 

Paul  and  his  fellow-passengers  were  obliged  to  re- 
main on  Malta  until  the  opening  of  navigation,  about 
three  months  after  their  arrival,  which  may  have  been 
the  early  part  of  February.2  The  inhabitants  of  the 
island,  called  barbarians  because  not  a  Greek-speaking 
people,  were  descendants  of  a  Phoenician  colony,  or  a 
kindred  people  from  Carthage.  The  island  had  been 
a  Roman  possession  for  two  and  a  half  centuries,  and 
belonged  to  the  province  of  Sicily,  having  the  rights 
of  a  Roman  municipium?  The  inhabitants  received 
the  unfortunate  people  with  kindness,  kindling  a  fire 
for  protection  against  the  rain  and  the  cold.4  Then 
the  Roman  magistrate,  the  highest  officer  on  the  island, 
entertained  the  company  for  three  days ;  and  when 
they  embarked  in  the  spring,  the  people  of  the  island 
provided  them  with  such  things  as  they  needed  for 
the  journey.5  This  kindness  both  of  Publius  and  the 
inhabitants  in  general  was  richly  repaid  by  Paul,  who 
healed  the  father  of  Publius  of  a  severe  illness  and 
cured  others  who  were  sick  with  various  diseases.6 
In    healing    the    father    of    Publius,    Paul    prayed,    as 

1  Acts  xxviii.  7.  8  Marquardt,  I.  246.       6  Acts  xxviii.  10. 

2  Acts  xxvii.  9;   xxviii.  II.         4  Acts  xxviii.  2.  6  Acts  xxviii.  8,  9. 


THE  JOURNEY   TO   ROME   IN   BONDS  209 

Jesus  did  in  connection  with  His  miracles,  and  laid 
his  hands  on  the  patient,  as  the  Lord  sometimes  did. 
What  was  done  in  the  case  of  Publius,  we  may  assume 
was  done  in  the  other  cases,  that  is,  Paul  wrought  his 
cures  by  the  power  of  God  which  was  granted  in  re- 
sponse to  prayer.  We  must  also  suppose  that  in  all 
these  cases,  as  when  Jesus  wrought  cures,  there  was 
faith,  —  here  faith  in  Paul  as  the  servant  of  God  and 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  incident  of  the  viper  on  Paul's  hand  appears 
to  be  wholly  trustworthy.1  The  circumstance  that 
vipers  are  not  found  on  the  island  at  present  is  no 
proof  that  they  may  not  have  been  found  there  eigh- 
teen centuries  ago.  The  judgment  of  the  barbarians 
when  they  first  saw  the  viper  on  Paul  was  as  natural 
as  was  their  later  judgment  when  they  saw  that  he 
experienced  no  ill  result.  Paul  was  a  prisoner  and 
doubtless  manifest  as  such,  and  when  people  saw  a 
viper  on  his  hand,  it  was  easy  to  think  that  this  was 
a  righteous  punishment  for  some  crime.  When  he 
shook  the  reptile  off  and  took  no  harm,  they  reasoned 
just  as  the  Lycaonians  did  when  Paul  and  Barnabas 
healed  the  cripple.  They  said  that  he  was  a  super- 
human being,  a  god.  The  thing  seemed  to  be  miracu- 
lous, and  the  pagan  inference  from  a  miracle  was  that 
the  worker  of  it  was  divine. 

1  Acts  xxviii.  3-6. 


2IO  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

This  story  is  also  characteristic  of  Paul.  It  was 
like  him  to  be  active  for  the  comfort  of  others,  as  he 
was  in  gathering  sticks  for  the  fire.  And  then  it 
was  like  Paul  not  to  make  any  ado  over  the  bite  of 
the  viper,  but  simply  to  shake  it  off  into  the  fire.  He 
had  been  in  scores  of  perils  equally  great,  and  the 
Lord  had  delivered  him.  And  moreover  he  had  been 
divinely  assured  that  he  should  bear  witness  in  Rome : 
therefore  he  had  no  fear  of  the  viper.  How  he  es- 
caped harm,  and  whether  his  escape  was  supernatural, 
one  cannot  say. 

The  ship  which  took  the  prisoners  from  Malta,  like 
that  which  was  wrecked,  was  from  Alexandria,  but 
had  wintered  in  one  of  the  harbors  of  the  island.1  It 
touched  at  the  military  colony  of  Syracuse  in  Sicily, 
some  90  miles  from  Malta,  and  again  at  Rhegium  in 
Italy,  the  capital  of  Lucania  and  Brittium,  which  was 
63  miles  further.  From  there  on  the  second  day  they 
came  with  a  good  wind  to  Puteoli,2  212  miles  from 
Rhegium. 

5.    From  Puteoli  to  Rome. 

In  Puteoli,  the  principal  port  of  southern  Italy,  where 
one  of  the  first  temples  for  the  worship  of  Augustus 
was  erected,3  Paul  and  his  companions  were  refreshed 
by  the  presence  of  Christian  brethren,4  at  whose  solici- 

1  Acts  xxviii.  II.  3  Marquardt,  I.  201,  note  2. 

8  Acts  xxviii.  13.  4  Acts  xxviii.  14. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  ROME  IN  BONDS       211 

tation  they  remained  a  week.  Evidently  Julius  had 
respect  for  the  wishes  of  his  prisoner,  and  indeed  after 
the  experiences  of  the  past  winter  he  may  well  have 
felt  that,  excepting  in  the  political  sense,  he  was  depen- 
dent upon  Paul  rather  than  Paul  upon  him.  In  any 
case  he  was  willing  to  grant  him  signal  favors,  as  is 
proven  by  the  visit  in  Puteoli. 

There  had  long  been  a  Jewish  colony  in  Puteoli, 
perhaps  because  it  was  a  flourishing  seaport,1  but  noth- 
ing is  known  of  the  founding  of  the  church  there. 
It  is  possible  that  the  brethren  had  heard  of  Paul,  and 
so  were  urgent  that  he  should  tarry  with  them  a  few 
days  :  possible  also  that  their  entreaty  rested  simply 
on  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Christian  and  a  prisoner. 

From  Puteoli  (the  ancient  Dicearchia)  Julius  and  his 
prisoners  went  the  remaining  129  miles  by  land,  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  customary  route  for  travellers 
from  the  East  who  were  bound  for  Rome.  Josephus  men- 
tions at  least  three  cases  where  Jews  who  were  journey- 
ing from  Palestine  to  Rome  disembarked  at  Puteoli.2 
The  week  spent  in  Puteoli  brought  Paul  other  en- 
couragement than  that  which  he  found  on  the  spot, 
for  word  was  sent  to  Rome  of  his  coming,  and  certain 
Christian  disciples  came  out  on  the  road  to  welcome 
him,  one  party  travelling  40  miles  to  the  Market  of 
Appius,  and  another  awaiting  him  at  The  Three  Tav- 

1  Schiirer,  II.  512.  2  Antiquities,  xvii.  12.  I;   xviii.  7.  2. 


212  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

ems,  30  miles  from  Rome.  This  was  a  happy  omen  for 
his  arrival  in  Rome,  and  Paul  thanked  God  and  took 
courage.1  In  Jerusalem,  when  he  had  been  on  trial 
for  his  life,  there  was  no  effort  of  the  Jewish  church, 
as  far  as  the  narrative  informs  us,  to  deliver  Paul 
or  to  comfort  him ;  but  now  from  these  brethren, 
chiefly  Gentiles,  to  whom  he  had  written  two  years 
before,  he  receives  tokens  of  liveliest  sympathy,  though 
he  comes  as  a  prisoner  to  be  tried  on  grave  charges. 
This  Roman  congregation  was  by  no  means  un- 
known to  Paul,  and  it  is  allowable  to  think  that 
among  those  who  came  to  The  Three  Taverns  and  the 
Market  of  Appius  to  greet  him  were  some  whom  he 
had  known  here  and  there  in  his  great  eastern  field. 
For  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Romans,  with  its  long  list 
of  names,  must,  I  think,  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the 
letter,  and  not  as  a  separate  writing  to  the  church  of 
Ephesus  which  by  mistake  became  incorporated  with 
the  epistle  to  the  Romans.  The  chief  argument  of 
those  who  think  that  this  chapter2  does  not  belong- 
to  the  epistle  to  the  Romans  is  that  Paul  could  not 
have  known  so  many  persons  in  Rome  as  are  greeted, 
and  moreover  could  not  have  known  their  circum- 
stances   so    minutely   as    he    knew    the    circumstances 

1  Acts  xxviii.  15. 

2  Either  verses  1-20,  or  1-23,  or  3-20,  or  3-23,  according  to  different 
writers. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO  ROME  IN   BONDS  213 

of  the  people  who  are  saluted  in  the  sixteenth  of 
Romans.1  But  this  is  an  assertion  rather  than  an 
argument.  It  is  simply  an  opinion,  and  over  against 
it  is  documentary  evidence  which  dates  from  the  time 
of  Paul.  To  assert  that  Paul  could  not  have  known 
twenty-seven  people  in  the  metropolis  is  to  assert 
something  which  plainly  cannot  be  proven,  and  which 
may  appear  quite  as  improbable  to  one  mind  as  it 
seems  probable  to  another.  For  surely  to  some  it 
seems  altogether  probable  that  the  most  famous  mis- 
sionary of  the  greatest  missionary  century,  a  man  who 
had  travelled  widely  for  thirty  years,  who  had  become 
acquainted  with  hundreds  of  people  in  the  leading 
centres  of  Greece,  Macedonia  and  Asia  Minor,  should 
have  known  the  names  of  twenty-seven  Christians  in 
Rome  and  something  about  the  circumstances  of  many 
of  them,  especially  when  we  consider  that  there  was 
lively  intercourse  between  the  cities  of  the  provinces 
and  the  great  metropolis.  But  this  is  a  matter  of  opin- 
ion, and  opinion  does  not  settle  questions  of  history, 
unless  solely  for  those  who  hold  the  opinion.  It  is 
said  however  that  Aquila  and  Priscilla  were  living  in 
Ephesus  at  the  time  of  the  composition  of  the  first 
letter  to  the  Corinthians,2  and  it  is  improbable  that 
they   had   moved   to    Rome    before    the    letter   to   the 

1  So,  in  substance,  Weizsacker,  Julicher,  McGiffert,  and  others. 

2  1  Cor.  xvi.  19. 


214  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

Roman  church  was  written.  It  is  true  that  they  were 
living  in  Ephesus  when  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians. 
It  is  also  true  that  they  were  living  in  Corinth  three 
years  earlier,1  and  in  Rome  a  little  earlier  still,  and 
it  is  no  stranger  that  they  should  have  moved  from 
Ephesus  after  a  brief  stay  than  that  they  remained 
only  a  short  time  in  Corinth. 

Again,  Epaenetus  is  saluted  in  Rom.  xvi.  5,  who  was 
the  firstfruit  of  Asia  unto  Christ,  and  it  is  said  that  he 
was  probably  in  Ephesus,  not  in  Rome.  Of  course  it 
was  more  likely  that  an  Asiatic  convert  would  be  in 
Asia  than  in  Rome,  and  yet  there  is  nothing  improb- 
able in  the  supposition  that  a  particular  convert  had  gone 
to  Rome.  People  were  continually  going  from  Ephesus 
to  Rome.      Why  not  Epaenetus? 

The  fact  that  Andronicus  and  Junias  are  saluted 
as  fellow-prisoners  of  Paul 2  does  not  point  to  Ephesus 
in  particular,  for  it  is  not  known  that  Paul  was  ever  in 
prison  in  Ephesus.  Of  the  other  names  in  Rom.  xvi. 
and  the  circumstances  connected  with  them  there  is  not 
one  which  suggests  Ephesus  rather  than  Rome.  In- 
deed, we  know  of  an  Aristobulus  and  a  Narcissus  in 
Rome  among  whose  slaves,  perhaps  now  manumitted, 
those  persons  may  well  have  been  whom  Paul  salutes,3 
and  as  many  as  eight  other  names  in  the  list  have  been 
found  in  Roman  inscriptions. 

1  Acts  xviii.  2.  2  Rom.  xvi.  7.  8  Rom.  xvi.  10,  II. 


THE  JOURNEY  TO   ROME  IN   BONDS  215 

There  still  remains  the  unexplained  and  seemingly 
inexplicable  circumstance  that  a  letter  of  recommenda- 
tion for  Phcebe  to  take  to  Ephesus  should  have  been 
incorporated  in  a  letter  to  the  Romans.  Weizsacker 
thinks  this  might  easily  happen,1  for  the  letters  were 
written  in  the  same  place  and  perhaps  by  the  same 
amanuensis.  But  this  statement  does  not  at  all  touch 
the  difficulty  of  the  case.  If  the  twenty-seven  persons 
saluted  in  Romans  xvi.  were  not  in  Rome,  how  could 
the  church  there  tolerate  this  blunder  of  the  copyist 
in  Corinth  ?  They  must  certainly  know  that  it  was  a 
blunder,  and  they  would  naturally  rectify  it,  and  thus 
the  copy  of  the  epistle  which  would  circulate  in  Rome 
would  be  one  without  the  sixteenth  chapter.  But  of 
such  a  text  there  is  no  evidence.2  I  hold  therefore  that 
Romans  xvi.  is  part  of  the  original  letter  to  Rome,  and 
accordingly  when  Paul  walked  up  from  Puteoli  to  the 
capital,  and  companies  of  Christian  believers  met  him 
at  the  Market  of  Appius  and  The  Three  Taverns,  we 
may  well  think  that  there  were  among  them  some 
familiar  faces,  for  example,  those  of  Aquila  and  Pris- 
cilla,  of  Andronicus  and  Junias,  of  Epaenetus  and 
Rufus,  and  that  while  the  great  city  was  new  and 
strange  to  him,  there  were  not  a  few  men  and  women 
in  it  of  whose  Christian  activity  he  had  heard,  and  in 
whom  he  felt  that  he  had  friends. 

1  Das  Apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  334. 

2  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I.  267-29S,  for  a  full  discussion  of  this  subject. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
At  the  Bar  of  Nero 

i.    The  Character  of  Paul's  Roman  Imprisonment. 

We  cannot  say  to  whom  Paul  was  delivered  by 
Julius,  nor  where  he  was  held  while  awaiting  trial. 
The  Revisers'  text  omits  the  Greek  word  st7'atopedarcJi 
from  Acts  xxviii.  16.  Ramsay  who  still  retains  this 
word 1  thinks  of  the  princeps  peregri)iornm,  or  captain 
of  the  "legionary  centurions"  from  abroad,  who  re- 
sided on  the  Caelian  Hill  in  the  "barracks  of  the  for- 
eigners." But  according  to  Marquardt2  the  "princeps 
peregrinorum  "  was  the  officer  in  charge  of  such  sol- 
diers as  had  been  ordered  to  Rome  from  the  prov- 
inces, and  therefore  not  one  to  whom  a  prisoner 
would  be  delivered. 

When  Paul  wrote  to  the  Philippians,3  he  spoke  as 
though  he  might  be  in  the  Praetorian  Camp,  which 
was  before  the  Viminal  Gate.  The  word  pr&torium 
designated  the  emperor's  quarters  as  commander  of 
the  army,  and  also  the  emperor's  guard ; 4  but  accord- 

1  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  34S.  8  Phil.  i.  13. 

2  R'6?nische  Staatsverwaltung,  II.  494.         4  Marquardt,  II.  475,  note  6. 

216 


AT  THE   BAR   OF  NERO  21 J 

ing  to  Mommsen l  it  was  never  applied  to  the  em- 
peror's palace  in  Rome.  Therefore  if  Paul  was  kept 
for  a  time  in  the  prcetorium,  we  have  to  think  of  the 
great  barracks  on  the  east  of  the  city  where  from  the 
time  of  Tiberius  the  nine  cohorts2  of  praetorians  were 
stationed. 

Luke's  narrative  makes  the  impression  that  Paul 
spent  the  two  years  in  a  private  house.  It  was  a 
place  which  he  rented  and  could  call  his  own.3  It  is 
this  private  dwelling  of  which  we  are  to  think  when 
Luke  says  in  Acts  xxviii.  16,  that  Paul  was  suffered  to 
abide  by  himself  with  the  soldier  that  guarded  him. 
If  then,  when  Paul  wrote  to  the  Philippians,  he  was 
in  the  praetorian  barracks,  it  is  plain  that  he  was  not 
in  his  own  hired  house.  But  it  does  not  necessarily 
follow  from  Philippians  i.  13,  that  Paul  was  in  the 
praetorian  camp.  He  says  that  his  bonds  became 
manifest  there,  but  also  to  all  the  rest.  His  bonds 
may  have  become  manifest  through  the  various  sol- 
diers who  guarded  him  during  the  two  years,  just  as 
they  became  widely  known  elsewhere  in  the  city 
through  the  persons  who  visited  him.  Paul  was  con- 
stantly guarded  by  a  soldier,  and  apparently  was 
bound  to  him  by  a  chain.4     Aside  from  this  surveil- 

1  Rdmisches  Staatsrecht,  II.  863,  864;   807,  note. 

2  Marquardt,  II.  476.  3  Acts  xxviii.  30. 

*  Acts  xxviii.  20;  Phil.  i.  13;  Philemon  1,  9,  10,  13;  Col.  iv.  3,  18; 
Eph.  iii.  1;   iv.  1;  vi.  20. 


21 8  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

lance,  Paul's  liberty  was  complete.     He  could  preach 
and  write,  and  could  receive  whomsoever  he  would. 

2.    Evangelistic  Labors  in  Rome. 

Paul  had  a  meeting  with  the  chief  Jews  of  Rome 
on  the  third  or  fourth  day  after  his  arrival.1  It  is 
likely  that  he  needed  some  time  to  find  suitable  lodg- 
ings, and  time  was  also  necessary  in  order  to  com- 
municate with  the  leading  Jews  and  to  invite  them  to 
his  house.  So  the  meeting  seems  to  have  been  held 
at  the  earliest  possible  hour.  The  purpose  of  Paul  in 
calling  this  meeting  was  to  explain  his  situation.2  He 
naturally  desired  to  secure  the  sympathy  of  his  fel- 
low-countrymen, and  to  anticipate  the  false  reports 
which  were  sure  to  come  from  Palestine  as  soon  as 
they  could  be  sent.  It  seems  quite  probable  that 
Paul's  name  was  known  in  the  Jewish  quarter  of 
Rome,  for  otherwise  it  would  be  strange  that  the 
chief  men  should  have  come  together  at  once  on  the 
invitation  of  a  prisoner.  It  is  true,  the  Jews  denied 
that  they  had  received  letters  from  Judea  concerning 
Paul,  and  they  said  that  none  of  the  brethren  had  re- 
ported or  spoken  any  harm  of  him,3  but  these  state- 
ments are  naturally  limited  by  the  preceding  verse 
to  the  events  of  recent  times.  They  do  not  imply 
that  the  Jews  had  never  heard  anything  about  Paul. 

1  Acts  xxviii.  17.  2  Acts  xxviii.  20.  8  Acts  xxviii.  21. 


AT  THE  BAR  OF  NERO  219 

The  first  meeting  between  Paul  and  the  Roman 
Jews  was  personal,  but  this  led  to  a  second  in  which 
he  presented  his  message  of  salvation.  They  requested 
him  to  speak  of  the  new  sect  which  was  everywhere 
spoken  against.1  This  language  implies  that  they  had 
no  knowledge  of  it  at  first  hand.  If  they  told  the  truth 
in  this,  then  we  must  suppose  that  they  had  kept 
quite  aloof  from  the  Christian  community  in  Rome. 
It  is  easy  to  believe  that  the  recent  experiences  under 
the  edict  of  Claudius  had  made  the  believing  and  the 
unbelieving  Jews  alike  extremely  careful  how  they 
discussed  the  new  sect.  As  they  valued  their  resi- 
dence in  the  city,  they  would  avoid  meetings  which 
might  end  in  riot  and  in  a  breaking  of  the  peace. 

At  the  second  meeting  there  were  a  large  number 
of  Jews  present,  and  Paul  discoursed  the  entire  day.2 
From  the  solemn  warning  with  which  Paul  closed  the 
meeting 3  we  infer  that  most  of  the  Jews  here  as  else- 
where did  not  receive  his  message. 

In  regard  to  the  work  of  Paul  among  the  Gentiles  in 
Rome  we  can  form  but  a  meagre  outline  from  Acts  and 
the  scattered  allusions  in  the  epistles.  The  impression 
which  is  made  by  Paul's  letters  is  that  the  cause  of  the 
Gospel  received  great  help  from  his  work.  Luke  4  says 
that  Paul  preached  with   all  boldness,  and   Paul  asks 

1  Acts  xxviii.  22.  8  Acts  xxviii.  24-28. 

2  Acts  xxviii.  23.  *  Acts  xxviii.  31. 


220  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

his  friends  in  Asia  to  pray  for  him,1  that  he  may  speak 
boldly  as  he  ought  to  speak.  This  request  closes  a 
victorious  passage  about  the  armor  of  the  Christian, 
which  we  can  more  easily  think  was  written  when 
Paul  was  himself  successfully  active  than  when  he 
was  inactive,  or  unsuccessful  in  his  work.  Paul  tells 
the  Philippians  that  his  imprisonment  in  Rome,  his 
state  and  experience,  has  worked  for  the  progress  of 
the  Gospel.2  And  this  progress  is  then  somewhat  spe- 
cifically indicated.  It  became  manifest  through  the 
praetorian  barracks  and  elsewhere  that  he  was  in 
bonds  for  the  sake  of  Christ.3  Many  became  con- 
vinced that  Paul  was  not  in  bonds  for  any  crime,  but 
that  it  was  his  religion,  his  zeal  in  preaching  Christ, 
that  had  brought  him  into  this  state. 

Further,  Paul  says  that  his  experience  encouraged 
most  of  the  evangelists  of  the  city  to  speak  the  word 
without  fear.4  The  protection  given  to  Paul  made 
them  courageous.  Even  certain  brethren  who  were 
opposed  to  Paul  were  stirred  to  new  activity  by  his 
success.  They  preached  Christ  in  their  way  vigor- 
ously, thinking  thereby  to  trouble  Paul.  It  is  mani- 
fest that  their  view  of  the  Gospel  was  such  that  Paul 
would  be  grieved  to  have  men  accept  it  as  true.  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that   they    were   of   the   Judaizing 

1  Eph.  vi.  20.  3  Phil.  i.  14. 

2  Phil.  i.  12.  *  Phil.  i.  15-18. 


AT  THE   BAR   OF  NERO  221 

party,  men  who  preached  Christ  but  preached  Moses 
also,  and  said  that  circumcision  was  necessary  to  salva- 
tion. 

These  statements  regarding  the  influence  of  Paul 
suggest  that,  though  he  was  in  bonds,  the  word  of 
God  as  he  proclaimed  it  was  not  bound.  In  the 
letter  to  the  Colossians1  he  speaks  of  the  Gospel  as 
bearing  fruit  and  increasing  in  all  the  world,  which 
naturally  includes  Rome.  In  the  same  letter  he  speaks 
of  God  as  energizing  in  him  mightily,  and  speaks 
of  himself  as  laboring  intensely.  Of  individual  con- 
versions in  Rome  little  is  known.  Onesimus,2  a  slave 
of  Philemon,  was  among  Paul's  Roman  converts,  — 
perhaps  also  Jesus-Justus.3  They  of  "  Caesar's  house- 
hold "  may  or  may  not  have  been  converts  of  Paul.4 

Paul  was  aided  in  his  Roman  work  by  old  friends 
and  fellow-laborers,  and  also  received  material  help 
from  afar.  Luke  and  Aristarchus  were  with  him,  as 
has  been  already  pointed  out.  Others  who  were  with 
him  in  Rome  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  were 
Tychichus,5  Mark,6  and  Timothy.7  Material  aid  was 
received  from  the  church  in  Philippi  by  the  hand  of 
Epaphroditus,8  and  Onesiphorus  of  Ephesus  refreshed 
Paul,  whether  by  material  or  spiritual  gifts,  or  both, 

i  Col.  i.  6.  *  Phil.  iv.  22.  »  Col.  i.  1 ;   Phil.  i.  1. 

2  Philemon  10.  5  Col.  iv.  7.  8  Phil.  iv.  10,  18. 

8  Col.  iv.  11.  6  Col.  iv.  10. 


222  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

is  not  said.1  There  is  no  reference  to  Paul's  working 
with  his  hands  for  his  own  support  while  in  Rome, 
as  he  did  in  Corinth,  Ephesus,  and  elsewhere.  At 
the  same  time,  he  is  able  to  hire  lodgings  commo- 
dious enough  so  that  a  large  number  of  Jews  could 
come  in.2  These  facts  taken  together  suggest  that 
Paul  had  some  new  source  of  supplies,  but  it  is  idle 
to  speculate  what  it  may  have  been. 

3.    The  Trial. 

The  causes  of  "  the  law's  delay  "  in  Paul's  case  are 
not  known.  The  letter  of  Festus,  who  confessed  that 
he  had  no  definite  thing  to  write  to  his  lord,3  would 
naturally  leave  the  matter  in  suspense.  The  case 
would  be  deferred  until  the  prosecutors  appeared,  and 
it  might  well  take  considerable  time  for  them  to  pro- 
cure witnesses.  Their  failure  in  Caesarea  would  make 
them  more  careful  not  to  appear  in  Rome  without 
some  plausible  evidence.  Then,  as  Paul  was  at  a 
great  distance  from  his  prosecutors  and  also  a  pris- 
oner, they  might  not  push  the  case  as  vigorously  as 
they  would  in  other  circumstances. 

The  trial  of  Paul  is  in  strongest  contrast  to  that 
of  Jesus.  Of  the  latter  we  have  a  multitude  of  de- 
tails ;  of  the  former,  scarcely  any  at  all. 

Paul  had  appealed  to  Caesar,  but  it  is  quite  doubtful 

1  2  Tim.  i.  16.  2  Acts  xxviii.  23.  3  Acts  xxv.  26. 


AT  THE   BAR   OF  NERO  223 

whether  his  case  was  brought  before  Nero  in  person. 
It  was  probably  given  over  to  a  representative  of  the 
emperor,  as  were  multitudes  of  cases.1  What  prose- 
cutors appeared  when  Paul's  case  was  heard,  what 
charges  they  preferred  against  the  prisoner,  and  what 
defense  Paul  made,  we  do  not  know.  The  one  thing 
which  is  tolerably  certain  is  that  Paul  was  acquitted. 
The  hearings  before  Felix,  Festus,  and  King  Agrippa 
lead  us  to  expect  acquittal  in  Rome.  Paul's  assurance 
that  he  should  be  set  at  liberty  is  also  an  argument 
that  his  trial  ended  in  acquittal.  When  he  wrote  to 
Philemon  and  the  Philippians,  his  trial  was  near,  and 
he  was  confident  that  he  should  be  released.2  Now 
he  was  surely  in  a  position  to  know  something  of  the 
course  of  events.  He  had  been  long  in  Rome,  and 
had  Christian  brethren  in  Caesar's  household.  If  he 
was  confident  that  he  should  be  acquitted,  he  prob- 
ably had  good  grounds  for  his  confidence.  Again, 
the  internal  evidence  for  the  genuineness  of  the  Pas- 
toral Epistles,  taken  with  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
place  for  them  within  the  life  of  Paul  as  recorded  in 
Acts  and  in  his  own  epistles,  is  an  argument  that  his 
trial  ended  in  acquittal.  The  evidence  for  the  genuine- 
ness of  these  writings  cannot  be  given  here.  It  is 
both   external   and  internal.      The   latter    evidence    is 

1  Mommsen,  Romisches  Staatsrecht,  II.  983. 

2  Philemon  22;   Phil.  ii.  24;   i.  25. 


224  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF  PAUL 

manifold.  There  are  some  difficulties  arising  from 
the  language,  the  teaching,  and  the  situation  of  the 
letters,  but  these  do  not  appear  to  me  to  be  as  great 
as  the  difficulties  which  are  created  by  the  hypothesis 
that  they  are  not  genuine.1  Finally,  the  statement  of 
Clement  of  Rome,  which  belongs  in  the  last  decade  of 
the  first  century,  that  Paul  went  to  "  the  bound  of  the 
West,"  in  his  missionary  work,  is  an  argument  for  the 
position  that  his  trial  ended  in  release.  Clement  wrote 
from  Rome,  and  he  could  not  have  meant  that  this 
was  "the  bound  of  the  West."  The  limit  of  the  West 
was  the  Atlantic  Ocean  or  Spain. 

Over  against  this  substantial  evidence  for  Paul's 
acquittal  there  is  no  historical  proof  whatsoever  that 
he  was  put  to  death  in  the  year  62  or  63. 2 

1  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I.  457-489,  defends  the  genuineness;  Harnack,  Die 
Chronologie  der  altchristlichen  Litera tur,  1897,  PP-  480-485,  admits  Pauline 
elements  but  denies  Pauline  authorship;  Julicher,  Einleitung,  pp.  11 2- 128, 
denies  the  genuineness. 

2  See  Appendix  II. 


CHAPTER   XV 
The  Close  of  Paul's  Life 

i.    The  Tour  from  Rome  Eastward. 

The  close  of  Paul's  life,  like  that  of  all  the  apostles 
except  James,  is  almost  entirely  hidden  from  us.  The 
only  New  Testament  data  which  concern  his  move- 
ments after  he  was  acquitted  by  the  court  of  Nero,  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles.  To  these  may  be 
added  a  like  traditional  information  which  has  good 
roots  in  the  first  century. 

The  allusions  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  to  a  trip  in  the 
East  are  the  following.  Paul  speaks  of  a  journey  into 
Macedonia,  prior  to  which  he  exhorted  Timothy  to  tarry 
in  Ephesus.1  This  seems  to  imply  that  he  himself  had 
been  in  Ephesus,  and  was  journeying  thence  into  Mace- 
donia. He  hoped  to  return  again  to  Ephesus  soon.2 
It  may  have  been  during  this  visit  in  Ephesus  that 
Oneisphorus  ministered  to  Paul.3  He  rendered  ser- 
vices which  Paul  says  were  well  known  to  Timothy, 
and  it  is  easier  to  suppose  that  these  services  were  of 

1  i  Tim.  i.  3.  2  1  Tim.  iii.  14;  iv.  13. 

8  2  Tim.  i.  18. 
Q  225 


226  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

recent  date  than  that  they  had  been  rendered  several 
years  before  when  Paul  labored  in  Ephesus.  And  fur- 
ther, if  Onesiphorus  was  a  notable  helper  of  Paul  in 
Ephesus  in  the  period  covered  by  Luke's  narrative  in 
Acts,  we  might  expect  some  reference  to  him  there. 
There  is  a  reference  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles  to  a  stop 
of  Paul  in  Miletus  which  cannot  be  identified  with  the 
visit  recorded  in  Acts.1  Paul  writes  to  Timothy  that 
he  left  Trophimus  at  Miletus  sick.2  Trophimus  was 
from  Ephesus,  and  when  Paul  visited  Miletus  on  his 
way  to  Jerusalem,  Trophimus  was  not  left  behind  sick. 
He  went  on  with  Paul  to  Jerusalem,  and  was  seen  with 
him  in  the  city.3  Therefore  the  reference  in  2  Timo- 
thy implies  another  visit  of  Paul  in  Miletus,  and  that 
must  have  been  after  the  Roman  imprisonment. 

Again,  the  Pastoral  Epistles  speak  of  a  recent  visit 
of  Paul  in  Troas.4  In  writing  to  Timothy  from  Rome 
Paul  asks  for  the  cloke  which  he  had  left  with  a  certain 
Carpus  in  Troas.  But  the  last  visit  in  Troas  of  which 
we  know  was  that  which  Paul  made  when  on  his  way 
from  Corinth  to  Jerusalem  with  the  offering  of  the 
churches.5  This  was  more  than  four  years  previous  to 
the  composition  of  2  Timothy  on  the  lowest  calculation 
consistent  with  the  genuineness  of  that  writing.  Now 
it  is  not  probable  that  Paul  was  sending  to  Timothy  for 

1  Acts  xx.  17.  8  Acts  xxi.  29.  s  Acts  xx.  6. 

2  2  Tim.  iv.  20.  4  2  Tim.  iv.  13. 


THE   CLOSE  OF   PAUL'S   LIFE  227 

a  cloke  which  had  been  left  in  Troas  four  years  before. 
It  is  more  likely  by  far  that  he  had  been  in  Troas  quite 
recently,  and  either  because  of  the  haste  of  his  depar- 
ture, or  for  some  other  unknown  reason,  left  his  cloke 
in  the  house  of  Carpus.  He  sends  for  it  now  in  view 
of  the  approaching  winter.1  This  fact  also  is  evidence 
that  Paul  had  not  left  the  garment  in  Troas  on  the 
last  visit  there  which  is  mentioned  in  Acts,  because  he 
had  now  spent  two  winters  in  Rome,  and  if  he  had 
needed  it  for  winter  he  would  probably  have  sent  for 
it  before. 

On  this  eastern  trip  subsequent  to  the  Roman  impris- 
onment Paul  seems  also  to  have  visited  Corinth.2  For 
in  immediate  connection  with  the  reference  to  Miletus, 
he  refers  to  Corinth,  saying  that  Erastus  abode  there, 
that  is,  remained  there  while  Paul  went  on.  The  two 
places  were  manifestly  visited  on  the  same  journey,  and 
if  the  visit  in  Miletus  finds  no  place  in  the  Book  of 
Acts,  so  neither  does  this  particular  visit  in  Corinth. 
Again,  the  epistle  to  Titus  presupposes  a  visit  of  Paul 
in  Crete,3  but  there  is  no  room  for  this  in  that  part  of 
Paul's  life  which  is  covered  by  the  Acts.  It  is  true, 
the  ship  which  took  Paul  to  Rome  a  prisoner  touched 
at  Fair  Havens  on  the  coast  of  Crete,  not  far  from  the 
city  of  Lasea ; 4  but  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  think 

1  2  Tim.  iv.  21.  8  Titus  i.  5. 

2  2  Tim.  iv.  20.  *  Acts  xxvii.  8. 


228  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

of  this  visit,  for  when  Paul  left  Crete  at  that  time  he 
was  going  to  Rome,  while  he  expected,  when  he  left 
Titus  in  Crete,  to  spend  the  approaching  winter  in 
Nicopolis.1  Paul  had  been  in  Macedonia  twice,  but 
it  is  impossible  to  put  a  visit  in  Crete  just  before  either 
of  these  Macedonian  tours.2  Therefore  if  it  be  his- 
torical that  Paul  was  once  in  Crete  and  departing  left 
Titus  there,  he  must  have  made  this  trip  after  his 
imprisonment  in  Rome. 

Since  we  find  Paul  planning  to  spend  a  winter  in 
Nicopolis,  and  also  hear  him  urging  Timothy  to  come 
to  him  in  Rome  before  winter,  and  to  bring  a  cloke 
because  he  was  not  prepared  for  winter  weather,  it 
is  natural  to  think  that  his  plan  was  frustrated,  that 
he  was  arrested  in  Achaia  or  in  Macedonia,  and  taken 
off  to  Rome. 

To  this  outline  based  on  the  Pastoral  Epistles  may  be 
added  two  details  from  the  letters  which  Paul  wrote 
out  of  his  first  Roman  imprisonment.  He  told  the 
Philippians  that  he  hoped  to  come  to  them  soon,3 
and  he  asked  Philemon  to  prepare  a  lodging.4  If 
then  Paul  was  set  at  liberty  soon  after  writing  these 
letters,  we  may  suppose  that  he  carried  out  his  plan 
to  visit  Philippi  and  Colossse. 

Such  is  the  outline  of  an  eastern  trip  of  Paul  sub- 

1  Titus  iii.  12.  8  Phil.  ii.  24. 

2  Acts  xvi.  II;  xx.  I.  4  Philemon  22. 


THE  CLOSE   OF   PAUL'S   LIFE  229 

sequent  to  his  first  imprisonment  in  Rome.  No  one  of 
the  allusions  necessarily  implies  a  protracted  stay. 
Paul  had  been  in  Ephesus  long  enough  to  discipline 
Hymenaeus  and  Alexander,1  but  not  long  enough  to 
give  Timothy  the  numerous  instructions  which  he 
wished  to  give  him.  It  is  perhaps  natural  but  not 
necessary  to  suppose  that  the  churches  in  Crete,  over 
which  Titus  at  Paul's  order  was  to  appoint  elders, 
were  churches  that  Paul  himself  had  established.  Paul 
made  it  a  principle  not  to  build  upon  other  men's 
foundations ;  but  if  the  churches  in  Crete  had  been 
founded  by  Titus  or  some  other  convert  of  Paul,  we 
cannot  say  that  he  would  have  refused  to  assume  any 
responsibility  for  them. 

2.    The  Second  Imprisonment  and  Death  of  Paul. 

On  what  grounds  Paul  was  arrested  a  second  time, 
and  where  he  was  seized,  whether  in  the  East  or  in 
the  West,  we  do  not  know.  If  he  went  eastward 
immediately  after  his  release,  as  he  hoped  to  do,  then 
the  Spanish  trip,  if  it  was  carried  out,  came  later;2 
but  on  the  order  of  the  tours  we  have  no  certain  in- 
formation. We  know  only  that  the  accusation  against 
Paul  was  of  such  a  character  that  the  first  part  of  his 

1  1  Tim.  i.  20. 

2  Spitta,  Zur  Geschichte  und  Literatur  des  Urchristenthums,  p.  107, 
puts  the  Spanish  tour  before  the  eastern  trip.  So  also  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I. 
435-444- 


230  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

trial  passed  off  favorably,1  and  therefore  it  can  hardly 
have  been  the  simple  accusation  that  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian.2 

The  second  imprisonment  was  altogether  unlike  the 
first.  Thus  it  appears  that  his  friends  and  fellow- 
workers  forsook  him  and  fled,  while  in  the  first  im- 
prisonment they  continued  with  him.  He  mentions 
by  name  Phygelus  and  Hermogenes  who  with  others 
from  Asia  turned  away  from  him.3  Demas  forsook 
him.4  No  one  took  his  part  at  his  first  defense.5  Luke 
only  remained  with  him.6  The  Roman  Christians  did 
not  entirely  abandon  him,  for  in  the  lull  that  followed 
his  first  defense,  when  he  was  writing  to  Timothy, 
they  visited  him  and  sent  greetings  in  the  letter.7  The 
fact  that  so  many  are  said  to  have  turned  away  from 
him  indicates  plainly  that  he  was  in  extreme  peril. 
His  physical  state  also  seems  to  have  been  unlike 
that  of  the  first  imprisonment.  Then  he  was  able  to 
hire  a  house ;  now  he  sends  a  thousand  miles  for  a 
garment  which  he  needs  for  winter.  He  speaks  fre- 
quently of  hardship,  as  though  his  confinement  was 
full  of  discomfort  and  pain.8 

Furthermore,  this  second  imprisonment  is  regarded 

1  2  Tim.  iv.  1 6,  17.  5  2  Tim.  iv.  16. 

2  So  Conybeare  and  Howson,  p.  764.  6  2  Tim.  iv.  II. 
8  2  Tim.  i.  15.  7  2  Tim.  iv.  21. 

4  2  Tim.  iv.  10.  8  2  Tim.  i.  8,  12,  16;   ii.  3,  9,  10,  II,  12. 


THE  CLOSE  OF   PAUL'S   LIFE  23  I 

by  Paul  as  leading  certainly  to  his  death,  while  the 
first,  he  was  sure,  would  be  followed  by  release.  He 
speaks  now  of  his  course  as  finished.1  He  is  already 
being  offered,  and  the  crown  of  righteousness  seems 
near.2  There  is  a  little  respite,  and  it  may  perhaps 
continue  a  few  weeks  or  even  months,3  but  the  end 
is  in  sight  and  the  time  of  his  departure  at  hand. 
Whether  Paul  lived  to  greet  Timothy  and  to  read  in 
the  precious  books  which  Timothy  was  directed  to 
bring,  cannot  be  determined.  Nothing  is  known  of  the 
time  or  circumstances  of  the  final  trial. 

Regarding  the  death  of  Paul  we  have  an  early  and 
reliable  tradition  to  the  effect  that  he  died  as  a  martyr, 
and  died  in  Rome  in  the  reign  of  Nero.  Beyond  this 
we  have  no  knowledge  whatever.  Clement  of  Rome, 
who  speaks  of  Peter  and  Paul  as  belonging  to  his  own 
generation,  testifies  that  Paul  suffered  martyrdom  under 
the  prefects.4  This  connects  his  martyrdom  with  Rome, 
but  it  does  not  suggest  the  year.  A  century  later  than 
Clement,  Caius,  a  presbyter  of  Rome,  witnesses  to  Paul's 
martyrdom  in  that  city,  and  adds  the  particular  that 
he  was  put  to  death  on  the  Ostian  Way.5  Eusebius, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  says  that  Paul 
was  beheaded  under  Nero. 

1  2  Tim.  iv.  7.  2  2  Tim.  iv.  6,  8.  8  2  Tim.  iv.  13,  21. 

4  Clement's  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  chapter  5. 
6  Eusebius,  Church  History,  II.  25. 


232  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

This  early  tradition  that  Paul  suffered  martyrdom  in 
Rome  under  Nero  is  the  only  tradition  regarding  his 
death,  and  it  only  affirms  what  the  second  letter  to 
Timothy  leads  us  to  expect. 

Thus  the  close  of  Paul's  life  is  veiled  from  our  eyes, 
but  no  cloud  dims,  or  ever  can  dim,  the  splendor  of  the 
services  of  that  life  for  God  and  for  humanity. 


APPENDIX    I 

THE   SOURCES 

On  the  two  great  sources  of  information  regarding 
Paul  —  the  Epistles  ascribed  to  him  and  the  Book  of 
Acts  —  recent  investigation  has  been  abundant.  Re- 
garding the  first  source,  there  has  been  a  notable 
increase  of  confidence  in  the  trustworthiness  of  certain 
parts  of  it ;  while  on  the  second  there  is  still  a  very- 
wide  divergence  of  views.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to 
review  the  various  investigations,  or  to  discuss  the 
sources,  but  briefly  to  indicate  the  position  which  under- 
lies the  present  volume. 

The  epistles  of  Paul  must  of  course  be  regarded  as 
the  primary  source  of  information,  and  if  the  Book 
of  Acts  presents  data  which  are  inconsistent  with  these 
epistles,  such  data  must  not  be  allowed  to  disparage 
the  value  of  the  primary  source.  Where  Paul  reports 
his  own  experiences  and  movements,  his  word  must  be 
held  to  be  final.  He  knew  the  facts  as  no  one  else 
could,  and  was  competent  to  bear  witness  concerning 
them.  The  only  question  which  must  be  answered 
before  accepting  the  testimony   of  his  epistles  is  the 

233 


234  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

question  of  their  genuineness.  The  doubtful  section 
of  these  has  been  narrowed  down  to  the  Pastoral 
Epistles,  and  there  seems  to  me  to  be  a  very  strong 
probability  that  at  least  certain  parts  of  these,  namely 
the  personal  data,  are  fully  trustworthy.  They  have 
not  been  accounted  for  as  the  free  invention  of  a  later 
time,  and  are  not  likely  to  be.  To  accept  those  parts 
as  historical  is  of  course  to  accept  the  view  that  Paul 
was  released  from  his  imprisonment  in  Rome,  and  that 
he  was  imprisoned  there  a  second  time.  Zahn,  Spitta, 
and  even  Harnack  do  not  hesitate  to  accept  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  on  this  point.1  For 
the  present  purpose  this  is  all  that  we  care  to  maintain, 
for  it  is  the  life  of  Paul,  and  not  his  teaching,  with 
which  we  are  concerned. 

Regarding  the  second  source  of  information,  the 
Book  of  Acts,  the  following  points  have  been  regarded 
as  established.  First,  that  the  author  relied  both  upon 
written  sources  and  upon  his  own  observation.  For 
the  first  twelve  chapters  in  particular  a  written  source 
or  sources  must  be  assumed.  The  language  of  these 
chapters,  as  has  often  been  pointed  out,2  has  a  strong 
Hebraizing  stamp,  which  is  foreign  to  the  subsequent 
chapters.     This   is   most   easily   accounted   for  by  the 

1  For  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  genuineness  of  the  entire  epistles 
see  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I.  457-489;  for  the  other  side,  Holtzmann,  Ein- 
leitung, 304-326.  2  Weiss,  Einleitung,  Zweite  Aufiage,  p.  570. 


APPENDIX  I  235 

supposition  that  the  author  was  dependent  upon  written 
Aramaic  sources.  Such  sources  are  presupposed  also 
by  the  long  addresses  of  these  chapters,  notably  those 
of  Peter  and  Stephen.  If  we  concede  historical  value 
to  these  addresses,1  we  shall  think  of  them  as  supported 
by  written  evidence  to  which  the  author  of  Acts  had 
access.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  a  speech  like 
Stephen's*  would  have  been  preserved  through  a  gen- 
eration otherwise  than  by  writing.  Yet  we  have  no 
right  to  affirm  that  the  author  was  wholly  dependent 
upon  written  sources  for  the  early  history  of  the  Jeru- 
salem church.  If  the  author  was  Luke,  as  the  great 
majority  of  independent  scholars  hold,2  then  he  may 
have  gathered  information  from  men  who  were  per- 
sonally acquainted  with  the  events  which  are  described 
in  the  first  chapters  of  Acts.  In  this  way  he  may  have 
learned,  for  example,  the  names  of  the  two  candidates 
for  the  place  of  Judas  in  the  apostolic  circle,  and  the 
names  of  the  seven  deacons,  and  a  multitude  of  other 
facts.  These  living  sources  were  Jewish-Christians, 
and  it  was  inevitable  that  a  document  which  faithfully 
preserved  their  view  of  events  should  have  a  Jewish- 
Christian  stamp. 

If  it  is  manifest  that  the  author  depended  in  part  upon 

1  Jiilicher,  Einleitung,  p.  268,  regards  them  as  free  inventions. 

2  Jiilicher  and  some  others  ascribe  the  third  Gospel  and  Acts  to  an 
unknown  author. 


236  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

written  sources  in  the  first  twelve  chapters  of  Acts,  it 
is  also  manifest  that  in  chapters  xiii.-xxviii.  he  drew  in 
part  from  his  own  experience  and  observation.  For  the 
parts  which  are  written  in  the  first  person  are  from  one 
who  was  not  only  a  companion  of  Paul,  but  was  also  the 
author  of  the  Acts.  This  latter  point  is  required  by 
various  considerations  which  can  merely  be  mentioned. 
The  author  of  the  third  Gospel  and  the  Acts  was  evi- 
dently a  man  of  rare  literary  ability,  and  it  is  altogether 
unnatural  to  suppose  that  he  incorporated  in  his  history, 
in  an  unchanged  form,  the  diary  of  some  other  man. 
There  is  nothing  of  this  sort  elsewhere  in  his  writings. 
Again,  the  literary  character  of  the  "  we  "  passages,1  is 
that  of  the  rest  of  the  book,  if  we  make  a  partial  ex- 
ception of  the  first  twelve  chapters.  This  fact  offers 
stubborn  resistance  to  any  attempt  to  make  the  author 
of  the  book  different  from  the  author  of  these  sections 
which  are  written  in  the  first  person. 

Second,  it  has  been  regarded  as  demonstrable  that 
the  materials  used  in  the  composition  of  Acts  cannot 
be  held  to  be  of  absolutely  equal  value.  The  facts  do 
not  seem  to  justify  so  strong  statements  as  Jiilicher, 
Clemen,  and  some  other  scholars  make,  but  at  the 
same  time  it  must  be  conceded  that  there  is  an  element 
of  truth  in  their  claims.  For  example,  Acts  i.  18,  19 
suffers  by  comparison  with  the  narrative  of  Matt,  xxvii. 

1  Acts  xvi.  IO-17;   xx.  5-xxi.  18;   xxvii.-xxviii. 


APPENDIX  I  237 

3-5,  and  the  story  of  speaking  with  other  tongues,  Acts 
ii.  4,  can  hardly  be  maintained  by  the  side  of  that 
phenomenon  which  is  spoken  of  in  Acts  x.  46,  and  fully 
described  by  Paul  in  1  Cor.  xii.-xiv.  namely  the  phe- 
nomenon of  speaking  with  tongues,  or  ecstatic  speech. 
In  addition  to  a  few  instances  of  this  sort,  there  is  a 
small  class  of  passages  which  furnish  evidence  either 
of  inadequate  sources,  or  of  misunderstanding  on  the 
part  of  the  author.  Even  so  conservative  a  scholar  as 
B.  Weiss  fully  concedes  this.1  An  illustration  of  the 
point  in  mind  is  furnished  by  a  compaiison  of  Acts  xv., 
in  its  setting,  with  the  narrative  of  the  same  events 
which  is  given  by  Paul  in  Gal.  ii.2 

But  to  admit  that  the  materials  and  the  statements 
of  Acts  are  not  of  absolutely  equal  value  is  by  no  means 
to  admit  that  the  book  as  a  whole  is  not  historical 
and  trustworthy.  This  is  the  third  point  which  has 
been  regarded  as  fixed.  None  of  the  recent  investiga- 
tions require  us  to  regard  the  general  trustworthiness 
of  Acts  as  doubtful.  The  author  of  the  third  Gospel 
and  the  Acts  tells  us  that  in  regard  to  the  Gospel  at 
least,  he  made  careful  investigation  with  reference  to 
the  alleged  facts ;  and  the  character  of  both  writings, 
of  Acts  as  a  whole  no  less  than  of  the  Gospel,  amply 

1  Einleitung,  p.  565. 

2  Clemen,  Chronologie  der  Paulinischen  Briefe,  p.  23  f.;  Holtzmann, 
Einleitting,  p.  412  f. 


238  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

sustains  his  claim.  There  are  differences  between  the 
Acts  and  the  epistles  of  Paul,  and  some  of  them  are 
quite  important,  but  nevertheless  the  historicity  of  the 
book  as  a  whole  not  only  does  not  suffer  when  tested 
by  Paul's  epistles  but  is  confirmed.  The  theory  of 
conscious,  intentional  tampering  with  facts  of  history, 
or  even  the  invention  of  facts,  in  order  to  bridge  a  gulf, 
largely  imaginary,  which  separated  Peter  and  Paul,  the 
Jewish  and  the  Gentile  sections  of  the  Church,  is  still 
a  theory,  waiting  for  substantiation.  That  there  was 
a  real  and  deep  difference  between  the  Jewish  and  the 
Gentile  conception  of  the  Gospel  is  plain  even  in  Acts, 
but  not  so  an  intentional  manipulation  of  facts  for  the 
purpose  of  obliterating  that  difference. 

The  "judaizing  of  Paul"  which  Clemen1  regards  as 
the  most  strikingly  incorrect  feature  in  the  entire  Acts 
is  scarcely  proven  by  the  facts  to  which  he  refers. 
That  Paul  generally  preached  to  Jews  first  is  doubtless 
to  be  accepted,  even  though  the  first  letter  to  the  Thes- 
salonians  treats  the  readers  as  Gentiles.  The  errors  in 
that  church  were  such  as  nourished  among  the  Gentiles 
in  particular,  and  it  is  not  strange,  therefore,  if  the  short 
letter  designed  to  deal  with  these  errors  makes  no  refer- 
ence to  the  Jewish  element,  which,  even  according 
to  Acts,  was  in  the  minority.  Another  example  of 
Clemen's    "  judaization "    of    Paul    is    found    in    Acts 

1  Chronologie  der  Paulinischen  Briefe,  p.  21  f. 


APPENDIX   I  239 

xxiii.  6.  It  is  claimed  that  Paul  could  not  have  con- 
fessed himself  a  Pharisee,  as  he  is  represented  to  have 
done  in  the  sanhedrin,  and  it  is  also  said  to  be  abso- 
lutely inconceivable  that  the  Pharisees  took  sides  with 
Paul.  Now,  even  if  these  claims  were  granted,  it  would 
not  follow  that  the  author  of  Acts  was  endeavoring  to 
make  Paul  as  Pharisaic  as  possible.  But  it  is  not  at  all 
self-evident  that  these  claims  are  true.  In  a  certain 
sense  Paul  was  a  Pharisee  and  remained  a  Pharisee  to 
the  end  of  his  life.  He  might  confess  that  he  was  a 
Pharisee  in  the  presence  of  the  Sadducees ;  and  the 
fanatical  enmity  between  Pharisees  and  Sadducees 
might  conceivably  have  turned  to  Paul's  advantage, 
as  the  narrative  in  Acts  records.  In  view  of  these 
counter  considerations  it  seems  doubtful  whether  this 
passage  should  be  regarded  as  evidence  that  the  author 
"  judaizes  "  Paul. 

We  must  judge  in  the  same  manner  in  regard  to 
Clemen's  assertion  that  Paul  could  not  have  partici- 
pated in  the  fulfilment  of  the  Nazirite  vow  in  the 
temple  as  Acts  affirms  that  he  did.  He  declares  that 
this  was  not  an  act  of  accommodation,  but  of  confes- 
sion, and  therefore  impossible.  But  what  did  he 
thereby  confess  according  to  Acts  ?  Simply  that  the 
report  regarding  his  attitude  toward  the  law  was  false. 
He  did  not  confess  that  Levitical  ceremonies  are  bind- 
ing upon  Christians. 


240  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

The  account  of  the  circumcision  of  Timothy :  is 
put  on  a  level  with  the  above  instances,  and  it  is  said 
to  be  impossible  that  Paul  could  have  made  this  con- 
cession to  Jewish  feeling  after  the  council  in  Jeru- 
salem. There  he  withstood  the  circumcision  of  Titus, 
and  therefore  he  would  not  straightway  have  circum- 
cised Timothy.  Certainly  not  if  it  had  been  demanded 
as  a  matter  of  principle ;  but  as  a  voluntary  act  of 
Paul,  which  is  the  representation  of  Acts,  it  is  per- 
fectly intelligible.  Paul  did  not  cease  to  have  Chris- 
tian tact  and  love  for  his  people  after  the  council  in 
Jerusalem. 

The  last  example  of  Clemen  is  that  of  Acts  xv. 
compared  with  Gal.  ii.  He  uncovers  certain  diffi- 
culties here,  and  we  may  agree  with  him  that  the  two 
accounts  are  not  wholly  consistent  with  each  other ; 
but  it  is  not  apparent  that  Acts  xv.  was  written  with 
the  design  of  making  a  Jewish-Christian  out  of  Paul. 
But  this  point  is  discussed  further  in  another  connec- 
tion and  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  here.2 

This  evidence,  therefore,  for  the  statement  that  the 
most  incorrect  feature  of  Acts  is  its  "judaizing"  of 
Paul  does  not  appear  to  be  conclusive ;  and  I  repeat 
that  no  recent  investigations  require  us  to  regard  the 
general  trustworthiness  of  Acts  as  doubtful. 

Acts  is  not  a  history  in  the  modern  sense  of  that 
1  Acts  xvi.  3.  2  See  pp.  87-94. 


APPENDIX   I  241 

term,  —  a  history  of  the  apostolic  age  or  of  Paul. 
Within  the  compass  of  some  forty  or  fifty  pages  of 
ordinary  size  it  takes  us  through  the  richest  and  most 
influential  period  of  all  the  Christian  centuries.  Of 
necessity  it  presents  only  a  few  salient  facts  which 
bear  upon  some  special  aspects  of  the  earliest  age  of 
the  Church.  Its  narrative  is  sometimes  modified,  some- 
times corrected,  by  Paul,  and  in  places  it  may  give 
an  inadequate  picture  of  events ;  but  yet  it  remains 
a  monument  of  inestimable  historical  value,  and  its 
representations,  though  of  course  to  be  tested,  are  not 
to  be  judged  unreliable  except  on  the  best  of  grounds. 


APPENDIX    II 

THE  CHRONOLOGY   OF  PAUL'S   LIFE 

On  the  relative  chronology  of  Paul's  life  we  have 
many  data  in  the  Book  of  Acts  and  in  Paul's  epistles. 
Certain  periods  are  definitely  marked  off,  as  those 
from  his  conversion  to  his  first  and  second  visits  in 
Jerusalem ; 1  other  periods  are  of  unknown  length,  as 
for  example,  the  missionary  tours  from  Antioch.  A 
single  period  of  indefinite  duration  of  course  renders 
it  impossible  to  compute  the  exact  length  of  his  Chris- 
tian career. 

On  the  absolute  chronology  of  Paul's  life  there  is 
even  greater  uncertainty  than  on  its  relative  chro- 
nology. We  do  not  know  the  year  of  his  birth,  his 
conversion,  his  death,  or  indeed  of  any  individual  event 
in  his  life  with  a  single  exception.  The  year  which  he 
spent  in  Antioch  with  Barnabas  synchronizes  wholly, 
or  in  part,  with  the  year  44  a.d.,  for  Luke2  indicates 
that  Herod  died  in  Caesarea  while  Paul  was  in  An- 
tioch, and  Herod's  death  fell  in  the  year  44,  not  long 

1  Gal.  i.  18;  ii.  1.  2  Acts  xii.  19-23. 

242 


APPENDIX   II  243 

after  the  Passover.1  But  this  year  in  Antioch  was 
preceded  and  followed  by  a  period  of  uncertain 
length,  for  it  was  preceded  by  the  work  in  Syria 
and  Cilicia  and  followed  by  the  first  missionary  tour 
from  Antioch. 

Professor  Ramsay  attempts  to  derive  a  fixed  point 
for  the  chronology  of  Paul's  life  from  Acts  xx.  6—1 1.2 
His  argument  proceeds  on  this  wise.  Paul  and  his 
companions  left  Troas  on  Monday  after  a  seven  days' 
visit.  Hence  they  arrived  in  Troas  on  the  preceding 
Tuesday.  But  they  had  been  five  days  on  the  trip 
from  Philippi  to  Troas,  and  therefore  must  have  left 
Philippi  on  the  second  Friday  preceding  their  de- 
parture from  Troas.  Now  Luke  says  that  they 
started  from  Philippi  "after  the  days  of  unleavened 
bread."  Ramsay  assumes  that  they  left  on  the  very 
next  day  after  the  feast,  and  therefore  that  the  Pass- 
over was  on  Thursday.  Now  since  the  Passover  came 
on  Thursday  in  the  year  57,  but  not  in  any  year 
immediately  before  or  after  that,  Ramsay  holds  that 
this  was  the  year  of  Paul's  last  journey  to  Jerusalem, 
and  so  the  year  of  his  arrest.  Accordingly  he  makes 
the  Caesarean  imprisonment  end  in  59,  and  the  Roman 
imprisonment  in  61. 

1  Antiquities,  xix.  8.  2 ;  Acts  xii.  3 ;  Schiirer,  Geschicktc  des  Jiidischen 
Volkes,  I.  469. 

2  Expositor,  1896,  Vol.  III.  pp.  336-345. 


244  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

But  it  will  be  seen  that  this  theory  absolutely  re- 
quires us  to  suppose  that  Paul  left  Philippi  on  Friday, 
and  Luke  neither  says  this  nor  does  his  narrative 
necessarily  imply  it.  He  simply  says  that  they  sailed 
away  from  Philippi  "  after  the  days  of  unleavened 
bread,"  and  while  his  narrative  speaks  of  Jiasteningx 
in  order  to  be  in  Jerusalem  at  Pentecost,  this  seems 
to  mean  only  that  they  were  unwilling  to  make  long 
stops  on  the  way.  They  tarried  a  week  in  Troas, 
several  days  in  Miletus,  a  week  in  Tyre,  a  day  in 
Ptolemais,  and  an  indefinite  number  of  days  in  Caesa- 
rea.2  Therefore  we  must  say  that  it  is  quite  uncer- 
tain whether  Paul  left  Philippi  on  the  day  immediately 
following  the  feast.  A  firmer  basis  than  this  is  neces- 
sary if  we  are  to  arrive  at  satisfactory  chronological 
results. 

Many  writers  have  thought  that  they  had  a  safe 
point  of  departure  for  reckoning  the  chronology  of 
Paul's  life  in  the  date  of  the  removal  of  Felix  and 
the  appointment  of  Festus.  Paul  was  arrested  two 
years  before  the  removal  of  Felix,  and  was  sent  to 
Rome  soon  after  the  appointment  of  Festus.  But 
here  again  it  is  difficult  to  establish  the  point  of 
departure.  Harnack3  following  Eusebius  puts  the 
removal  of    Felix  and   the  appointment  of   Festus   in 

1  Acts  xx.  1 6.  2  Acts  xx.  6,  17;  xxi.  4,  7,  10. 

8  Die  Chronologic  der  altchristl.  Literatur,  I.  233-239. 


APPENDIX   II  245 

the  second  year  of  Nero,  October  55  to  October  56. 
Oskar  Holtzmann1  and  McGiffert2  adopt  the  same 
year  for  the  appointment  of  Festus,  but  do  so  on 
the  basis  of  Tacitus  and  Josephus. 

The  common  view  has  been  that  Festus  was  not 
appointed  until  about  the  year  60.3  It  is  necessary, 
therefore,  to  consider  the  evidence  for  these  two  dates. 
Harnack  accepts  the  testimony  of  Eusebius  who  says 
that  Festus  succeeded  Felix  in  the  second  year  of 
Nero.  He  admits  that  Eusebius  is  not  always  right 
in  his  chronological  statements,  but  thinks  that  it 
could  not  have  been  difficult  to  learn  the  exact  time 
of  the  accession  of  Felix  and  Festus,  in  Palestine,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century.  He  holds  that 
the  date  of  Eusebius  is  confirmed  by  Josephus  and 
Tacitus,  for  Josephus4  says  that  Felix,  when  accused 
in  Rome  by  certain  of  the  principal  men  of  Cassarea, 
was  defended  and  saved  by  his  brother  Pallas  who 
had  great  power  at  court,  and  Tacitus5  records  that 
Pallas  fell  from  the  emperor's  favor  in  the  year  55. 
Accordingly,  unless  Pallas  was  afterward  restored, 
Felix  must  have  been  removed  from  office  not  later 
than  55.  Finally,  Harnack  thinks  that  the  chronology 
of   Paul's  life  prior  to  his   imprisonment   under   Felix 

1  Neutestamentliche  Zeitgesckichte,  pp.  129,  130. 

2  The  Apostolic  Age,  pp.  356-359.  4  Antiquities,  xx.  8.  9. 
8  Schiirer,  I.  477-484.                                     6  Annals,  xiii.  14,  15. 


246  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

is  favorable  to  the  date  of  Eusebius.  Let  us  consider 
these  points  one  by  one,  beginning  with  the  last. 
Harnack  thinks  that  the  recorded  history  of  Paul 
before  his  arrest  in  Jerusalem  can  be  compressed  into 
the  years  before  53  or  54;  but  in  order  to  do  this  he 
carries  back  the  conversion  of  Paul  to  the  year  30. 
Bousset1  points  out,  as  a  great  objection  to  this  view, 
that,  at  the  time  of  Paul's  conversion,  there  were 
Christian  churches  scattered  over  the  land  as  far 
as  Damascus.  Now  it  is  not  probable  that  the  year 
30  a.d.  saw  the  Gospel  so  widely  extended. 

Moreover  it  appears  impossible  to  bring  within  a 
single  year  the  events  of  Acts  i.-viii.,  especially  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel  among  the  priests,  the  events 
which  led  to  the  appointment  of  the  deacons,  and  after 
these  things  the  persecutions  of  Paul,  which  involved 
many  trials  by  the  sanhedrin,2  and  various  journeys 
to  points  at  a  distance  from  Jerusalem.3  This  history 
cannot  all  be  reasonably  compressed  into  a  single  year ; 
and  therefore  one  of  the  outposts  of  Harnack's  position 
must  be  abandoned. 

Again,  Harnack,  as  also  O.  Holtzmann  and  McGiffert, 
lays  much  stress  on  the  argument  formed  by  coupling 
together  a  statement  of  Josephus  and  a  statement  of 
Tacitus.     Josephus    says  that  Felix,  when  accused  of 

1  Theol.  Rundschau,  Erstes  Heft,  1897. 

2  Acts  xxvi.  10.  8  Acts  xxvi.  II. 


APPENDIX   II  247 

misgovernment,  was  saved  through  the  intervention 
of  Pallas,  and  Tacitus  says  that  Pallas  fell  into  dis- 
favor in  the  year  55.  The  inference  is  drawn  that 
Felix  must  have  been  removed  from  office  as  early  as  55. 
Schiirer's  supposition 1  that  Pallas  was  restored  to  favor 
is  regarded  by  Harnack  as  precarious,  and  therefore 
we  will  not  build  on  it.  Still  the  inference  which  is 
drawn  from  the  happy  conjunction  of  Josephus  and 
Tacitus  is  anything  but  necessary.  Suppose  that  Pallas 
had  been  dismissed  by  Nero  in  order  to  humble  Agrip- 
pina,  he  was  not  thereby  stripped  of  influence.  Tacitus 
says  that  he  had  amassed  a  fortune  of  some  fifteen 
millions  of  dollars,  and  that  he  had  received  extrava- 
gant honors  from  the  senate  for  his  service  in  pro- 
posing a  law  to  prevent  the  intermarriage  of  free 
Roman  women  with  slaves.2  Now  this  man,  though 
no  longer  in  Nero's  employ,  was  doubtless  one  of  the 
most  powerful  men  in  Rome,  and  there  is  nothing 
improbable  in  the  statement  of  Josephus  that  his 
solicitations  saved  the  life  of  Felix.3  Josephus  may 
be  in  error  in  saying  that  Pallas  was  at  that  time  had 
in  the  greatest  honor  by  Nero,  but  he  may  be  right 
in  the  essential  point,  that  Pallas  saved  Felix.  The 
"importunate  solicitations"  of  a  man  with  the  immense 

wealth  of  Pallas  could  hardly  fail  to  have  weight  with 

t 

1  Geschichte  dcs  Judischen  Volkes,  I.  484. 

2  Annals,  xii.  53.  8  Antiquities,  xx.  8.  9. 


248  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

the  unprincipled  Nero,  even  though  he  had  removed 
Pallas  from  office.1  And  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
according  to  Tacitus,  Nero  removed  Pallas  in  order 
to  humble  Agrippina,  and  not  primarily  because  of 
personal  animosity.  It  appears,  therefore,  that  we  may 
with  good  grounds  reject  the  inference  which  Harnack 
and  others  draw  from  the  combined  testimony  of 
Tacitus  and  Josephus. 

There  remains  then  the  bare  statement  of  Eusebius, 
that  Festus  succeeded  Felix  in  the  second  year  of 
Nero.  Now  Schiirer  says  that  the  statements  of  the 
Chronicle  of  Eusebius  are  often  arbitrary,  and  even 
Harnack  admits  that  they  must  be  tested.2  For  ex- 
ample, Eusebius  says  that  Paul  was  put  to  death  in 
the  fourteenth  year  of  Nero,  and  Harnack  thinks  it 
demonstrable  that  the  ancient  historian  was  four  years 
out  of  the  way. 

The  opinion  of  Harnack  that  it  could  not  have  been 
difficult  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  to  learn, 
in  Palestine,  the  exact  time  of  the  accession  of  Felix 
and  Festus,  will  probably  not  be  shared  by  many  of 
his  readers.  For  if  the  Roman  historians  failed  to 
preserve  the  exact  dates  of  the  accession  of  Roman 
officials  in   Palestine,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Jews  of 

1  I  find  that  Ramsay  expresses  the  same  opinion.  Expositor,  1897, 
Vol.  V.  p.  210. 

2  Chronologie,  p.  235. 


APPENDIX  II  249 

that   land   preserved   these   dates  for  two  and  a  half 
centuries. 

But  there  are  some  objections  to  this  specific  state- 
ment of  Eusebius  which  puts  the  appointment  of 
Festus  in  the  second  year  of  Nero.  First,  Felix  was 
sent  to  Judea  in  52,1  but  Paul  said  to  him,  two  years 
before  he  was  removed  from  office  and  succeeded  by 
Festus,  "  Forasmuch  as  I  know  that  thou  hast  been 
of  many  years  a  judge  unto  this  nation,  I  do  cheer- 
fully make  my  defense."  Could  he  have  used  that 
language  if  Felix  had  been  in  office  but  a  single  year, 
or  even  two  years  ?  Harnack  supposes  that  Felix 
had  been  in  office  three  or  four  years  when  Paul 
stood  before  him.  In  order  to  get  so  long  a  period 
he  accepts  the  year  51  as  the  year  when  Felix  was 
appointed,  and  the  year  54  as  that  in  which  Paul 
stood  before  him.  But  against  the  year  51  is,  first, 
the  fact  that  the  Armenian  manuscript  of  the  Chronicle 
puts  the  appointment  of  Felix  in  the  eleventh  year 
of  Claudius,2  that  is,  the  year  52;  and  second,  the 
fact  that  Josephus3  seems  to  put  it  in  the  twelfth 
year  of  Claudius.  Moreover,  if  Festus  succeeded  Felix 
in  the  summer  of  56,  as  Harnack  believes,  and  if 
Luke's  statement  be  true  that  Paul  was  a  prisoner 
under  Felix  two  full  years,4  then  we  are  brought  back 

1  Antiquities,  xx.  7.  I.  8  Antiquities,  xx.  7.  I. 

2  Chronologie,  p.  234.  4  Acts  xxiv.  27. 


250  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

to  the  summer  of  54,  and  from  the  summer  of  54  back 
to  the  year  52  is  not  a  space  of  "three  or  four" 
years.  At  the  outside,  it  is  only  two  years  and  a 
half,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  Paul  would  have  spoken 
of  this  period  as  one  of  many  years.  Harnack  says 
that  three  or  four  years  are  not  few  for  a  procurator, 
and  so  seems  to  take  Luke's  language  as  though  it 
read,  "  Since  thy  procuratorship  has  been  an  unusu- 
ally long  one."     But  that  is  plainly  impossible. 

O.  Holtzmann  and  McGiffert  seek  to  justify  this  lan- 
guage of  Luke  by  the  use  of  a  remark  of  Tacitus 
that  Felix  was  over  a  part  of  Palestine  contempora- 
neously with  Cumanus.  But  Josephus  knows  nothing 
of  this  division  of  the  land.  He  regards  Felix  as  the 
successor  of  Cumanus,  and  not  as  a  contemporary 
ruler  in  Palestine.1  This  testimony  of  Josephus  is  set 
aside,  and  that  of  Tacitus  is  adopted.  Harnack,  on  the 
other  hand,  makes  no  appeal  to  the  testimony  of  Taci- 
tus, and  therefore  probably  does  not  regard  it  as  prefer- 
able to  that  of  Josephus.  Schurer2  prefers  the  report 
of  Josephus,  as  it  is  more  definite  than  that  of  Tacitus. 
Here,  then,  we  face  a  contradiction  between  Josephus 
and  Tacitus.  We  cannot  discredit  the  account  of 
Josephus  on  the  ground  that  this  part  of  his  narra- 
tive contains  many  palpable  inaccuracies,  for  the  nar- 

1  Antiquities,  xx.  6.  1-3;    7.  1. 

2  Geschichte  des  Jiidischen  Volkes,  I.  477,  note  14. 


APPENDIX  II  251 

rative  of  Tacitus  also  has  its  improbable  features. 
One  thing  is  plain.  The  testimony  of  Tacitus,  on 
whose  worth  scholars  hold  opposite  views,  cannot  be 
brought  into  court  and  held  to  settle  an  important 
question  in  controversy.  A  chronological  result  which 
rests  even  in  part  upon  such  evidence  as  this  cannot 
be  regarded  as  a  final  result.  We  must  say  that  the 
language  of  Luke  in  Acts  xxiv.  10,  is  still  a  grave  ob- 
jection to  the  acceptance  of  the  second  year  of  Nero 
as  that  of  the  appointment  of  Festus. 

But  while  the  evidence  is  against  this  year  as  the 
date  of  the  appointment  of  Festus,  no  year  can  be 
definitely  substituted  for  it.  There  is,  however,  a  con- 
vergence of  testimony  upon  the  period  between  58 
and  60.  Schiirer1  states  somewhat  as  follows  the  ar- 
gument for  60  as  the  latest  year  in  which  the  re- 
moval of  Felix  can  be  put.  It  appears  from  Acts 
xxvii.  7  that  Felix  was  removed  in  the  summer.  Now 
since  Albinus  became  procurator  in  the  summer  of 
62  at  latest,  we  cannot  put  the  removal  of  Felix  in 
the  summer  of  61,  since  that  would  leave  too  little 
time  for  the  procuratorship  of  Festus  who  preceded 
Albinus.2 

On  the  other  hand,  the  chronology  of  Paul's  Chris- 
tian   career    seems    to    require,   for    the    removal    of 

1  Geschichte  des  Jiidischen  Volkes,  I.  484. 

2  Antiquities,  xx.  8.  9-1 1. 


2$2  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

Felix,  a  date  as  late  as  58.  If  we  allow  three  years 
for  the  events  of  Acts  i.-vii.,  and  with  McGiffert  allow 
seven  or  eight  years  for  the  interval  between  the  con- 
ference in  Jerusalem  and  the  arrest  of  Paul,  these 
periods  with  the  three  years  and  fourteen  years  of  Gal. 
i.,  ii.  bring  us  to  the  year  57  or  58.  In  like  manner, 
if  we  start  from  the  year  44  in  which  Agrippa  I. 
died,  we  reach  the  year  57  as  the  date  of  Paul's 
arrest  in  Jerusalem.  We  assume  that  the  year  44 
was  spent  in  Antioch.1  Then  if  we  allow  three 
years  for  the  first  missionary  tour,  and  one  year  for  the 
events  of  Acts  xv.  1-35,  and  eight  years  for  the  interval 
between  the  council  and  the  arrest  in  Jerusalem,  we 
come  to  the  year  57. 

It  may  be  held,  therefore,  that  the  internal  and  exter- 
nal evidence  point  to  the  latter  third  of  the  sixth  decade 
as  the  period  in  which  Felix  was  succeeded  by  Festus, 
and  I  regard  the  year  58  as  more  probable  than  the 
year  60. 

Starting  from  the  summer  of  58  as  the  date  of  the 
appointment  of  Festus,  we  have  the  following  approxi- 
mate dates  for  Paul's  life  :  — 

The  arrest  of  Paul  in  Jerusalem  in  the  summer  of  56. 
Three  months  in  Achaia,  winter  of  55-56. 
Visit  in  Macedonia,  autumn  of  55. 
The  work  in  Ephesus,  52-55. 

1  Acts  xi.  26. 


APPENDIX  II  253 

From  Antioch  through  the  "upper  country,"  52. 
Second  missionary  tour  from  Antioch,  49-51. 
Council  in  Jerusalem  and  work  in  Antioch,  48. 
First  tour  from  Antioch,  45-47. 
In  Syria  and  Cilicia,  35-44. 
In  Arabia,  32-35. 
Conversion,  32. 

Again,  assuming  the  year  58  as  the  date  of  the 
appointment  of  Festus,  it  follows  that  Paul  was  sent 
to  Rome  in  the  fall  of  that  year.1  He  reached  Rome 
in  the  early  part  of  59,  about  four  months  having  been 
spent  on  the  way.2  The  two  years  of  imprisonment  of 
which  Luke  speaks 3  carry  us  forward  to  the  spring 
of  61.  The  date  which  is  assigned  for  Paul's  death 
depends  not  only  upon  the  date  which  is  adopted  for 
his  arrival  in  Rome,  but  also  upon  the  view  which  one 
holds  regarding  a  second  Roman  imprisonment.  Har- 
nack  holds  a  second  imprisonment  which  terminated  in 
the  death  of  the  apostle  in  the  year  64.*  McGiffert 
thinks  that  Paul  was  put  to  death  at  the  end  of  the 
imprisonment  of  Acts  xxviii.  30,  and  this  he  assigns 
to  the  year  58.5  O.  Holtzmann  6  and  Jiilicher 7  put  the 
death  of  Paul  in  64,  though  Holtzmann  thinks  the 
imprisonment  of  Acts  xxviii.  30,  terminated  in  58,  and 

1  Acts  xxvii.  9.  6  The  Apostolic  Age,  p.  419. 

2  Acts  xxvii.  27;   xxviii.  II.      6  Neutestamentliche  Zeitgeschichie,  p.  128. 
8  Acts  xxviii.  30.  7  Einleitung,  p.  26. 

*  Die  Chronologie,  p.  239. 


254  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

Jiilicher  that  it  terminated  in  64.  Ramsay 1  thinks 
there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  Paul's  martyrdom 
took  place  about  the  year  67.  Zahn  2  holds  a  release 
from  the  Roman  imprisonment  of  Acts  xxviii.  30,  a 
period  of  activity,  and  a  second  imprisonment  which 
terminated  in  the  year  66  or  67  in  the  death  of  Paul. 
Spitta  3  also  holds  a  second  imprisonment  in  Rome,  and 
puts  the  death  of  Paul  late  in  Nero's  reign,  though  not 
assigning  a  definite  year. 

I  hold  that  Paul  was  released  from  the  imprison- 
ment of  Acts  xxviii.  30,  for  (1)  the  Book  of  Acts 
leads  us  to  anticipate  a  release.  Lysias,  Felix,  Festus, 
and  Agrippa  all  declared  that  Paul  had  done  nothing 
worthy  of  death  or  of  bonds.  These  previous  decis- 
ions would  not  be  reversed  by  the  supreme  court  with- 
out good  evidence  against  Paul,  and  what  evidence 
could  the  Jews  bring  which  they  had  not  already 
brought?  (2)  Paul  felt  sure  that  he  should  be  re- 
leased, and  this  was  toward  the  close  of  the  two 
years.4  He  says  he  knows  that  he  shall  abide  in  the 
flesh,  and  he  asks  Philemon  to  prepare  for  him  a 
lodging.  (3)  The  Pastoral  Epistles  presuppose  a 
release,  and  even  if  these  letters  are  not  from  Paul's 
hand,  they  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  there  was  a 

1  Expositor,  1896,  Vol.  III.  p.  343.  2  Einleitung,  I.  443. 

8  Zur  Geschichte  unci  Literatur  des  Urchristenthums,  p.  107. 
4  Phil.  i.  25;  ii.  24;   Philemon  22. 


APPENDIX   II  255 

tradition  of  his  release  in  the  earliest  church.1  If  the 
church  had  known  that  Paul  was  executed  at  the 
close  of  the  imprisonment  of  Acts  xxviii.  30,  no  dis- 
ciple of  Paul,  writing  in  his  name  at  the  beginning  of 
the  second  century,  would  have  ventured  to  assume 
that  Paul  was  released  at  that  time.  So  the  Pastoral 
Epistles,  whether  genuine  or  not,  must  be  reckoned 
with  in  the  settlement  of  this  question.  (4)  There  is 
a  tradition  reaching  back  to  the  first  century  that 
Paul  went  to  Spain.  Clement  of  Rome2  says  that 
Paul  preached  in  the  East  and  the  West,  and  that  he 
came  to  the  limit  of  the  West.  Harnack3  regards 
that  expression  as  referring  to  Spain.  Spitta  affirms 
that  no  Roman  writer  {i.e.  no  writer  living  in  Rome) 
ever  said  that  he  lived  on  the  boundary  of  the  West ; 4 
and  that  we  cannot  take  the  language  as  from  Paul's 
point  of  view  because  the  Roman  church  knew  well 
that  in  Paul's  thought  the  limit  of  the  West  was 
not  Rome  but  Spain.5  Zahn  also  holds  that  the  lan- 
guage of  Clement  refers  to  Spain.  Thus  the  ancient 
tradition  has  illustrious  supporters  among  the  most 
recent  writers. 

In  connection  with  the  testimony  of  Clement  refer- 

1  Zahn,  Einleitung,  I.  438. 

2  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  chapter  v. 
8  Die  Chronologie,  p.  239. 

4  Zur  Geschichte  und  Liter atur  des  Urchristenthums,  p.  53. 
6  Rom.  xv.  24,  28. 


256  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

ence  may  be  made  to  the  Muratorian  Canon,  which 
dates  from  the  close  of  the  second  century,  but  which 
must  be  regarded  as  the  crystallization  of  beliefs 
much  older  than  that.  This  Canon  represents  that 
Paul  went  to  Spain. 

We  cannot  argue  that  Paul  never  labored  in  Spain 
from  the  fact  that  there  are  no  traces  of  such  labor. 
What  traces  of  his  work  in  Bercea  and  Athens  and 
Lystra  and  Derbe  are  to  be  found  outside  the  New 
Testament  ?  He  labored  long  in  Syria  and  Cilicia,  but 
there  is  no  clear  trace  of  it  save  in  Tarsus  and  Antioch. 

On  the  above  grounds,  therefore,  the  release  of  Paul 
from  the  imprisonment  of  Acts  xxviii.  30  seems  to  rest 
securely.  But  this  result  takes  us  only  one  step  toward 
the  determination  of  the  date  of  his  death.  The  geo- 
graphical and  chronological  references  of  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  imply  an  eastern  journey  which  on  a  conserv- 
ative estimate  requires  a  year.  Assuming  that  Paul 
was  released  in  the  spring  of  61,  we  thus  come  to  the 
spring  of  62  without  taking  account  of  the  traditional 
journey  to  Spain.  It  is  certain  that  Paul's  death  oc- 
curred before  June  of  the  year  68,  for  it  is  the 
unanimous  tradition  of  the  early  Church  that  he  suf- 
fered martyrdom  under  Nero,  and  Nero  died  June  8,  68. 
Thus  the  period  within  which  Paul's  death  occurred  is 
narrowed  down  to  five  or  six  years  in  the  middle  of 
the  seventh  decade. 


APPENDIX   II  257 

We  have  already  said  that  Harnack,  O.  Holtzmann, 
and  Jiilicher  put  the  death  of  the  apostle  in  the  year  64. 
Holtzmann  does  not  argue  the  point  but  simply  says 
that  the  two  years'  imprisonment  of  Paul  cannot  have 
continued  beyond  the  Neronian  persecution  of  64. 
Jiilicher  says  that  "according  to  the  unanimous  tradi- 
tion of  the  early  Church  Paul  was  beheaded  in  Rome 
and  indeed  in  the  Neronian  persecution,  therefore  in 
the  summer  of  64."  Harnack  speaks  of  Paul's  death 
in  the  summer  of  64  as  certain,  and  seems  to  put  it 
there  for  the  reason  that  according  to  Tacitus  the 
persecution  by  Nero  began  in  the  summer  of  64,  and 
Eusebius  in  his  Chronicle  puts  the  death  of  Paul  in 
the  first  year  of  the  persecution.  One  must,  however, 
challenge  the  statement  of  Jiilicher  that  the  unanimous 
tradition  of  the  early  Church  puts  Paul's  death  "  in  the 
Neronian  persecution,  therefore  in  the  summer  of  64." 
Clement  of  Rome  does  not  mention  Nero's  name  at 
all  in  connection  with  Paul's  death.  Eusebius  quotes 
from  Dionysius  of  Corinth  to  the  effect  that  Paul  and 
Peter  suffered  martyrdom  in  Rome,1  and  he  himself 
puts  it  under  Nero,2  but  he  does  not  connect  it  with 
the  particular  persecution  of  the  year  64.  Zahn  whose 
minute  acquaintance  with  early  Christian  literature  is 
well  known  declares  that  there  is  not  in  the  entire  early 
tradition  any  certain  support  for   the  view  that    Paul 

1  History,  ii.  25.  8.  2  History,  ii.  25.  5;   iii.  I.  2. 

s 


258  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

was  executed  in  the  year  64.1  Harnack2  appeals  to 
Eusebius,  but  must  correct  the  statement  of  the  early- 
historian  before  it  can  be  used.  For  Eusebius  says 
that  Paul  was  put  to  death  in  the  fourteenth  or  thir- 
teenth year  of  Nero,  that  is,  in  the  year  68  or  6y ; 
but  he  also  says  that  it  was  in  the  same  year  in  which 
the  persecution  began.  Harnack  sets  aside  the  first 
statement,  but  holds  the  second.  It  seems,  however, 
impossible  to  suppose  that  Eusebius,  who  surely  knew 
the  Roman  historians,  could  have  made  a  mistake  of 
four  years  in  the  date  of  the  persecution  of  64.  If  his 
Chronicle,  preserved  in  an  Armenian  and  a  Latin  trans- 
lation which  vary  greatly  from  each  other,  actually 
said  that  Paul  was  put  to  death  in  the  fourteenth  or 
thirteenth  year  of  Nero,  and  that  this  was  the  first 
year  of  Nero's  persecution,  then  we  have  here  pal- 
pable reason  why  we  should  not  build  upon  this  state- 
ment of  Eusebius  at  all. 

But  aside  from  the  silence  of  early  tradition  there  is 
other  evidence  against  connecting  the  death  of  Paul 
with  the  persecution  of  the  summer  of  64.  Tacitus  3 
tells  us  that  Nero  put  the  Christians  to  death  with 
exquisite  cruelty.  Some  were  burned,  some  crucified, 
some  given  to  wild  beasts,  some  covered  with  inflam- 
matory material  and  burned  as  torches  in  the  gardens  of 

1  Einleitung,  I.  437.  2  Die  Chronologic  etc.,  p.  241. 

8  Annals,  xv.  44. 


APPENDIX   II  259 

Nero.  But  early  tradition  says  that  Paul  was  beheaded. 
This  suggests  a  legal  execution  rather  than  the  tortures 
of  the  Neronian  persecution. 

Again,  the  Pastoral  Epistles  do  not  allow  us  to  think 
that  Paul  perished  simply  because  he  was  a  Christian, 
for  it  surely  would  not  have  been  difficult  to  prove  this 
charge  against  the  venerable  apostle,  but  it  was  diffi- 
cult to  convict  him  on  the  charges  which  were  brought. 
There  was  a  first  defense,  and  then  at  least  one  more 
hearing.1  Now  whether  this  writing  is  from  the  hand 
of  Paul  or  from  one  of  his  disciples,  it  presupposes  a 
tradition  two  hundred  years  older  than  the  words  of 
Eusebius.  We  conclude,  therefore,  that  the  evidence  is 
against  connecting  the  death  of  Paul  with  the  persecu- 
tion by  Nero  in  the  summer  of  64.  Paul  died  a  martyr, 
for  he  had  done  nothing  worthy  of  death  or  of  bonds ; 
but  he  did  not  fall  a  sacrifice  to  the  rage  and  cruelty  of 
Nero,  as  did  those  who  perished  in  the  summer  of  64. 
The  exact  year  of  his  death  cannot  be  determined,  but 
we  may,  with  a  high  degree  of  probability,  assign  it  to 
the  last  three  or  four  years  of  Nero's  reign,  that  is,  to 
the  period  from  65  to  68  a.d. 

1  2  Tim.  iv.  16. 


APPENDIX    III 

THE   CHURCHES   OF   GALATIA 

Where  were  the  churches  of  Galatia  ?  Three  an- 
swers have  been  given  to  this  vexed  question.  The 
first  locates  the  churches  to  which  Paul  wrote  his  letter, 
in  Galatia  proper,  the  district  in  North-central  Asia 
Minor  on  the  Halys  and  Sangarios  rivers,  whose  chief 
cities  were  Pessinus,  Ancyra,  and  Tavium.  The  second 
locates  them  in  Pisidia  and  Lycaonia,  that  is,  in  the 
region  where  Paul  and  Barnabas  labored  on  the  first 
missionary  tour  from  Antioch.  They  were  the  churches 
of  Antioch,  Iconium,  Lystra,  and  Derbe.  The  third 
answer  to  the  question  locates  the  Galatian  churches 
both  in  the  southern  and  the  northern  part  of  the 
Roman  province  of  Galatia.  According  to  this  view 
the  chief  of  the  Galatian  churches  were  those  of 
Antioch,  Iconium,  Lystra,  and  Derbe,  but  there  were 
other  unnamed  communities  in  the  region  north  of 
Antioch.  The  first  view  is  described  as  the  North 
Galatian  theory ;  the  second,  as  the  South  Galatian ; 
and  we  may  call  the  third  the  Pan-Galatian  theory. 
There  have  been  and  still  are  eminent  advocates  of  each 

260 


APPENDIX   III  26l 

theory.  For  the  first,  we  may  mention,  out  of  many 
well-known  names,  those  of  Lightfoot,  Zockler,  Schurer, 
Sieffert,  Holtzmann  (H.  J.),  Holsten,  and  Wendt.  For 
the  second  view,  the  names  of  Ramsay,  Weizsacker, 
Holtzmann  (O.),  Hausrath,  Perrot,  Renan,  and  Mc- 
Giffert,  may  be  mentioned.  And  for  the  third  view 
we  have  the  name  of  Zahn.  The  question  has  been 
under  discussion  for  three  quarters  of  a  century,  and 
has  been  positively  settled  many  times,  but  it  does  not 
remain  settled. 

There  is  comparatively  little  tangible  evidence  for 
or  against  either  theory,  and  therefore  the  discussion 
abounds  in  opinions  and  airy  inferences.  Most  briefly 
stated,  the  argument  for  each  theory  is  as  follows,  and 
in  stating  it  we  will  begin  with  the  last,  the  Pan-Gala- 
tian  theory.  This  is  presented  with  great  thorough- 
ness and  fairness  by  Zahn.1  He  holds  that  Acts  xvi.  6, 
grammatically  interpreted,  requires  us  to  think  that 
Paul  and  Silas  worked  in  the  region  of  Galatia  north 
of  Antioch.  He  agrees  with  Chase2  that  the  South 
Galatian  theory  is  shipwrecked  on  the  rock  of  Greek 
grammar.  But  on  the  other  hand,  he  holds,  on  the 
basis  of  Pliny,  Tacitus,  and  Ptolemy,  that  the  name 
Galatia  was  applied  in  the  first  century  to  the  entire 
region    over    which    King    Amyntas    had    ruled,    and 

1  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T.,  I.  123-138. 
a  Expositor,  1893,  Vol.  VIII.  p.  411. 


262  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

consequently  that  the  cities  were  properly  Galatian  in 
which  Paul  had  labored  on  his  first  tour  from  the 
Syrian  Antioch.  The  letter  to  the  Galatians  was  a 
letter  to  the  churches  of  Antioch,  Iconium,  Lystra, 
and  Derbe  together  with  certain  churches  in  the  re- 
gions further  north.  He  thinks  we  are  required  by 
various  considerations  to  include  the  South  Galatian 
churches.  Thus  it  would  be  strange,  he  says,  that 
the  well-known  churches  of  South  Galatia  should 
disappear  from  the  New  Testament  after  we  pass 
from  Acts,  and  that  the  churches  of  North  Galatia, 
of  whose  establishment  we  know  nothing,  should  come 
into  prominence  as  they  do  if  we  refer  to  them  Paul's 
letter  to  Galatians,   i   Cor.  xvi.   i,  and  I   Peter  i.   i. 

Again,  it  would  be  strange,  Zahn  says,  if  Judaizers 
passed  by  the  churches  of  South  Galatia  and  pene- 
trated to  the  distant  region  of  North  Galatia.  Further- 
more, he  thinks  that  Gal.  ii.  5  implies  that  Paul  at 
the  council  in  Jerusalem  had  the  Galatian  believers 
in  mind ;  but  if  so,  then  it  must  have  been  the  South 
Galatian  believers  for  up  to  that  time  Paul  had  not 
been  in  North  Galatia.  Paul  also  mentions  Barnabas 
in  his  letter  to  the  Galatians  in  a  way  which  is  most 
naturally  explained  if  the  readers  were  personally  ac- 
quainted with  him.  And  finally,  there  are  two  pas- 
sages in  Galatians  which  find  their  best  explanation 
in   the   narrative   of    Paul's   work    in    South    Galatia. 


APPENDIX   III  263 

Thus  Paul  says  that  the  Galatians  received  him  as 
an  angel  of  God,1  and  in  Acts  xiv.  11-14  we  read 
how  the  people  of  Lystra  believed  that  Paul  and 
Barnabas  were  gods,  and  wished  to  offer  sacrifice  to 
them.  Again,  in  Gal.  v.  11,  Paul  speaks  of  "preach- 
ing circumcision,"  and  Zahn  thinks  this  is  best  ex- 
plained by  the  narrative  of  Acts  xvi.  1-3,  which 
records  that  Paul  circumcised  Timothy. 

The  argument  for  the  South  Galatian  theory  is  as 
follows.  It  was  Paul's  habit  to  use  the  official  Roman 
names  of  countries,  and  therefore  when  he  says  Gala- 
tia 2  we  naturally  think  of  the  province  of  that  name.3 
In  his  letter  to  the  Galatians  Paul  speaks  as  though 
when  at  the  council  of  Jerusalem  he  had  had  the 
Galatians  in  mind,  and  if  so,  it  must  have  been  the 
Galatians  of  Pisidia  and  Lycaonia.  Again,  the  fact 
that  Judaizers  from  Antioch  and  Jerusalem  appeared 
in  the  Galatian  churches  points  to  South  Galatia,  for 
it  is  improbable,  to  say  the  least,  that  they  would 
have  penetrated  into  North  Galatia.  Once  more, 
certain  particulars  of  the  narrative  in  Acts  and  in 
the  letter  to  the  Galatians  require  us  to  think  of 
South  Galatia.  Thus,  in  Acts  xx.  4,  Luke  mentions 
no  delegate  from  the  Galatian  churches,  though  ac- 
cording to  1   Cor.  xvi.   1  the  Galatians  had  a  part  in 

1  Gal.  iv.  14.  2  1  Cor.  xvi.  1;   Gal.  i.  2. 

8  So  Zahn,  Weizsacker,  Pfleiderer,  Ramsay,  and  McGiffert. 


264  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

the  contribution.  Luke  does,  however,  give  the  names 
of  two  men  from  South  Galatia  as  among  the  dele- 
gates to  convey  the  contribution  to  Jerusalem.  Again, 
it  is  hazardous  to  insert  in  Acts  xvi.  6  so  important  a 
work  as  the  establishment  of  the  Galatian  churches ; 
and  how  can  Paul  have  preached  the  Gospel  in  North 
Galatia  on  account  of  an  infirmity  of  the  flesh  ? 1 

Finally,  the  advocates  of  this  theory  hold  it  im- 
probable that  so  important  a  document  as  the  epistle  to 
the  Galatians  should  have  been  addressed  to  churches 
of  whose  establishment  Luke  says  nothing ;  and  that 
the  churches  of  South  Galatia,  whose  establishment 
he  describes  at  length,  should  not  be  alluded  to  in 
the  New  Testament  outside  the  Book  of  Acts. 

For  the  North  Galatian  theory,  the  following  argu- 
ments are  brought  forward.2  Luke  uses  the  geograph- 
ical, not  the  political,  names,  and  therefore  if  we  had 
Acts  only,  no  one  would  ever  have  thought  of  the 
South  Galatian  theory.  For  Luke  plainly  separates 
between    Galatia,   on  the   one   hand,   and    Pisidia   and 


1  Gal.  iv.  13. 

2  See,  among  other  writers,  Zockler,  in  Studien  und Kritiken,  1895,  PP- 
51-102;  Holsten,  Das  Evangelium  des  Paulus,  1880,  pp.  35-45;  Wendt, 
Commentary  on  Acts,  7th  ed.;  H.  J.  Holtzmann,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T. 
1886,  p.  241  ;  Jiilicher,  Einleitung  in  das  N.T.,  pp.  47-49;  Zahn,  Ein- 
leitung in  das  N.  T.,  1897, 1-  I23~l29>  Sieffert,  Commentary  on  Galatians, 
7th  ed.;  Lipsius,  Hand-Commentar,  Zw.  Band,  Zw.  Abtheilung,  1S91; 
Lightfoot,  Commentary  on  Galatians. 


APPENDIX   III  265 

Lycaonia,  on  the  other.  The  grammatical  exegesis 
of  Acts  xvi.  1-6  requires  us  to  hold  that  Luke  did 
not  put  Antioch,  Iconium,  Lystra,  and  Derbe  in  the 
Galatian  land  of  which  he  speaks  together  with  Phry- 
gia.  Again,  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians  represents 
Paul  as  the  sole  founder  of  the  Galatian  churches ; 
but  in  the  establishment  of  the  churches  of  South 
Galatia  Barnabas  was  with  Paul,  set  apart  unto  the 
work  no  less  than  Paul.  Once  more  it  is  held  that 
the  epistle  to  the  Galatians  requires  the  North  Gala- 
tian theory.  Thus,  if  the  epistle  was  addressed  to  the 
churches  of  South  Galatia,  it  would  be  very  strange 
that  Paul  does  not  mention  Galatia  with  Syria  and 
Cilicia,  for  his  work  there  belongs  in  the  same  period 
in  which  he  was  in  Syria  and  Cilicia.1  And  then  in 
Galatians  Paul  reports  to  his  readers,  as  if  for  the 
first  time,  what  was  done  at  the  council  of  Jerusalem. 
But  he  had  been  in  South  Galatia  long  before  the  com- 
position of  the  letter,  and  had  handed  to  the  churches 
the  letter  of  the  council.  Therefore,  the  epistle  to 
the  Galatians  presupposes  a  different  circle  of  readers 
from  the  membership  of  the  South  Galatian  churches. 
Moreover,  the  Galatians  to  whom  the  letter  of  Paul 
was  sent  were  pressed  by  the  "false  brethren"  to  be 
circumcised.  But  if  they  had  been  the  Christians  of 
South  Galatia,  they  could  at  once  have  met  the  Juda- 

1  Gal.  ii.  1. 


266  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF   PAUL 

izers  with  the  letter  of  the  council  in  which  the  neces- 
sity of  the  circumcision  of  the  Gentiles  was  tacitly- 
repudiated. 

Such,  briefly,  are  the  arguments  urged  in  support 
of  the  respective  theories.  Each  theory  has  some- 
thing to  stand  upon,  and  neither  one  can  be  arbitra- 
rily ruled  out  of  court.  Yet  the  theories  do  not  seem 
to  me  to  be  equally  well  grounded,  and  it  is  a  matter 
of  considerable  importance  for  the  life  of  Paul  which 
theory  we  adopt. 

The  Pan-Galatian  theory  does  justice  to  Acts,  for 
it  interprets  xvi.  1-6  in  keeping  with  Luke's  usage 
and  in  keeping  with  Greek  grammar.  But  it  does 
not  seem  to  do  justice  to  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians. 
Holsten  argues  with  much  force  that  the  churches  to 
which  the  letter  was  sent  cannot  have  been  estab- 
lished on  the  first  missionary  tour.  Paul  speaks  of 
the  council  in  Jerusalem  as  though  his  readers  had 
not  heard  of  it ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  churches  of 
South  Galatia  knew  all  about  it.  Paul  and  Silas  had 
reported  it  to  them.1  Then  the  churches  of  South 
Galatia  had  the  letter  of  the  council  in  which  it  re- 
pudiated the  doctrine  of  the  Judaizers  of  Antioch,  and 
it  is  hardly  conceivable  that,  with  this  letter  in  their 
possession,  they  could  have  fallen  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Judaizers.     And  then  if  the  letter  to  the 

1  Acts  xvi.  4. 


APPENDIX   III  267 

Galatians  was  addressed  chiefly  to  the  churches  of 
South  Galatia,  as  Zahn  holds,  it  is  strange  that  Gal. 
i.  21  does  not  mention  Galatia  with  Syria  and  Cilicia. 
If  Galatia  means  South  Galatia,  then  Paul  must  have 
worked  there  in  the  same  period  in  which  he  worked 
in  the  neighboring  provinces  of  Syria  and  Cilicia. 
But  if  he  spent  the  time  in  Syria,  Cilicia,  and  Galatia, 
why  did  he  omit  Galatia,  especially  when  writing  to 
the  Galatians  ? 

There  are,  however,  certain  points  in  the  letter  to 
the  Galatians  which  Zahn  regards  as  favorable  to  the 
South  Galatian  theory.  Thus  the  apostle  speaks  as 
though  he  had  the  Galatians  in  mind  when  he  was 
contending  in  Jerusalem  for  Gentile  liberty.1  But  as 
Zockler  says,  this  language  was  natural  though  the 
Galatian  churches  had  not  yet  been  established,  and 
even  Ramsay  lays  no  stress  on  this  point.2  Ramsay 
also  says  that  he  sees  "no  great  value"  in  the  argu- 
ment that  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians  speaks  of  Barna- 
bas as  though  the  readers  were  personally  acquainted 
with  him.3  Paul  speaks  of  Barnabas  in  the  same  way 
when  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  but  there  is  no  evi- 
dence that  the  Corinthians  were  personally  acquainted 
with  him. 

Zahn  thinks   that   Gal.  iv.    14,   and   v.  11,  are  best 

1  Gal.  ii.  5.  2  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  101. 

3  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  97. 


268  THE   STUDENT'S   LIFE   OF   PAUL 

explained  by  the  narrative  of  Paul's  work  in  South 
Galatia.  In  Gal.  iv.  14,  Paul  says  that  the  Galatians 
received  him  as  an  angel  of  God,  as  Christ  Jesus,  and 
this  is  thought  to  refer  to  his  remarkable  experience 
in  Lystra,  where  the  people  regarded  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas as  gods.1  Ramsay  refers  to  this  point  as  made 
by  Lightfoot,  but  apparently  he  does  not  attach  much 
value  to  it.2  Surely  it  is  a  difficult  argument.  The 
Lycaonians  thought  that  Paul  was  the  god  Hermes, 
and  they  had  no  conception  whatever  of  his  message 
of  salvation.  But  Paul  says  that  the  Galatians  received 
him  as  an  angel  of  God,  as  Christ  Jesus.  Now  assum- 
ing that  the  Lycaonians  were  afterward  converted,  as 
Zahn  does,  one  cannot  readily  see  how  Paul  could  say 
that  receiving  him  as  the  god  Hermes  was  after  all 
equivalent  to  receiving  him  as  Jesus  Christ. 

The  other  passage  is  Gal.  v.  11,  and  this  is  said  to 
be  best  explained  in  the  light  of  Acts  xvi.1-3.  Ram- 
say regards  this  passage  as  an  unmistakable  reference 
to  the  case  of  Timothy.3  Now  it  must  be  admitted  that 
Paul's  enemies  might  have  used  his  circumcision  of 
Timothy  in  the  way  implied  in  Gal.  v.  11;  but  one 
fails  to  see  why  they  could  not  have  used  it  against 
him  in  Corinth  or  Judea  or  North  Galatia.      In  other 

1  Acts  xiv.  8-18. 

2  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  101,  102. 
8  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  102. 


APPENDIX   III  269 

words,  granting  that  Gal.  v.  1 1  refers  to  Paul's  circum- 
cision of  Timothy,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  letter 
must  have  been  written  to  the  Christians  of  Lystra  and 
Derbe,  Iconium  and  Antioch. 

These  objections  to  the  Pan-Galatiau  theory  are  also 
an  answer  to  some  of  the  points  which  are  enumerated 
above  in  favor  of  the  South  Galatian  theory.  But 
there  are  still  other  points  in  the  South  Galatian  theory 
which  appear  to  be  open  to  criticism.  Thus  we  may 
grant  that,  if  we  had  not  the  Book  of  Acts,  our  first 
thought  on  reading  Gal.  i.  2  would  be  that  Paul  meant 
the  Roman  province  of  Galatia,  because  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  using  the  official  Roman  names  instead  of  the 
ordinary  geographical  designations.  It  seems  plain 
that  the  term  Galatia  in  the  first  century  migJit  refer 
to  the  entire  region  which  Amyntas  had  ruled.  But 
of  course  it  does  not  follow  that  it  must  always  be 
taken  in  that  sense,  and  that  it  ceased  to  be  used  to 
designate  Galatia  proper.  The  presumption  is  that 
Paul  and  his  colaborer  Luke,  who  had  travelled  and 
worked  together  for  years,  used  the  word  in  the  same 
sense.  Again,  it  is  not  plain  that  the  appearance  of 
Judaizers  in  the  churches  of  Galatia  favors  the  South 
Galatian  theory.  Sieffert  says  it  was  easier  to  reach 
Galatia  proper,  for  a  traveller  from  Jerusalem,  than  to 
reach  Lystra  and  Derbe ;  and  Zockler  remarks  that  it 
was  no  farther  in  a  straight  line  from  Antioch  in  Pisidia 


270  THE  STUDENT'S  LIFE  OF  PAUL 

to  Pessinus  than  from  Antioch  to  Iconium.  It  is 
thought  that  the  journey  cannot  have  been  as  difficult 
as  that  from  Perga  to  Pisidian  Antioch.  The  Judaizers 
may  have  passed  by  the  South  Galatian  churches  be- 
cause in  these  the  letter  of  the  Jerusalem  church  had 
been  promulgated.  This  would  naturally  make  it  more 
difficult  for  the  Judaizers  to  gain  influence. 

Again,  the  argument  for  the  South  Galatian  theory 
based  on  Acts  xx.  4  is  of  doubtful  value.  It  assumes 
that  Luke  gives  us  a  complete  list  of  the  delegates  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  assumes  also  that  the  contribution  from  the 
churches  of  Galatia  was  sent  at  the  same  time  with  that 
from  Achaia  and  Macedonia.  But  if  no  delegate  from 
Achaia  is  mentioned,  which  is  really  the  case,  though 
Achaia  certainly  contributed,  it  need  not  be  regarded 
as  strange  that  none  is  mentioned  from  Galatia.  Even 
Ramsay *  admits  that  this  argument  based  on  Acts 
xx.  4  has  "very  little  value,"  and  it  need  not  be  further 
considered. 

Nor  can  we  safely  argue  for  South  Galatia  from 
the  fact  that  Luke  refers  to  the  establishment  of 
churches  in  North  Galatia  only  in  Acts  xvi.  6  and 
xviii.  23,  if  at  all.  He  says  nothing  of  the  establish- 
ment of  the  church  in  Rome  to  which  Paul's  most 
elaborate  letter  was  written.  He  says  nothing  of 
Paul's   sojourn   in   Arabia,   and   nothing   of  the   years 

1  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  98. 


APPENDIX  III  271 

which  he  spent  in  Christian  work  in  Syria  and 
Cilicia.  He  gives  as  much  space  to  Paul's  voyage 
to  Rome  as  he  does  to  his  great  work  of  three 
years  in  Ephesus  which  profoundly  stirred  all  Asia. 
It  is,  therefore,  quite  in  keeping  with  Luke's  method 
if  it  be  true  that  he  makes  only  a  brief  reference  to 
the  work  in  North  Galatia ;  and  this  same  line  of 
argument  answers  the  point  that  we  cannot  well  sup- 
pose an  important  letter  written  to  a  church  of  whose 
establishment  we  know  so  little. 

The  fact  that  Paul  preached  to  the  Gentiles  on 
account  of  an  infirmity  of  the  flesh  is  held  to  argue 
for  the  South  Galatian  theory.  But  Luke  gives  us 
a  full  description  of  the  establishment  of  the  South 
Galatian  churches  and  yet  makes  no  allusion  to  the 
sickness  of  Paul.  Further,  if  it  is  conceivable  that 
Paul,  when  he  turned  north  from  Antioch1  and  be- 
fore he  came  to  the  boundary  of  Bithynia,2  passed 
through  a  part  of  Galatia  proper  —  and  this  of  course 
cannot  be  denied  —  then  it  is  conceivable  that  he  was 
detained  in  Galatia  by  sickness,  and  that  while  thus 
detained  he  preached  the  Gospel.  Paul  does  not 
suggest  that  he  took  the  journey  to  North  Galatia  on 
account  of  sickness,  as  Ramsay  strangely  affirms,3  but 
only  that  when  he   preached   to  the  Galatians  it  was 

1  Acts  xvi.  6.  2  Acts  xvi.  7. 

3  Expositor ;  1892,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  373. 


272  THE  STUDENT'S   LIFE  OF  PAUL 

not  of  purpose,  but  because  his  journey  had  been  in- 
terrupted by  illness. 

The  argument,  therefore,  for  the  South  Galatian 
theory  does  not  seem  to  me  conclusive.  I  cannot 
discover  in  it  anything  that  seriously  weakens  the 
North  Galatian  position.  The  grammatical  exegesis 
of  Acts  xvi.  1-6  sends  Paul  through  some  part  of 
Galatia  proper,  where,  according  to  Acts  xviii.  23,  he 
won  converts  to  the  Christian  faith.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  these  converts  were  in  Ancyra  and 
Tavium,  as  has  sometimes  been  assumed.1  It  seems 
most  in  accordance  with  the  facts  regarding  the  sec- 
ond missionary  tour  from  Antioch  to  suppose  that 
they  were  in  the  west  or  southwest  part  of  Galatia, 
for  example,  in  the  region  of  Pessinus  and  Germa. 

The  use  of  the  term  Galatia  by  Paul  offers  no 
opposition  to  the  exegetical  argument,  for  he  would 
surely  use  that  term  if  addressing  churches  in  Gala- 
tia proper,  though  he  might  also  use  it  if  addressing 
churches  in  Pisidia  and  Lycaonia.  The  exegetical 
argument  seems  to  be  corroborated,  as  has  been  in- 
dicated above,  by  the  situation  and  thought  of  the 
epistle  to  the  Galatians. 

And  so  the  balance  of  probability  appears  to  me 
to  be  strongly  in  favor  of  the  view  that  the  Galatian 
churches  were  in  Galatia  proper. 

1  £.£.,  Lightfoot  on  Galatians. 


INDEX   OF   PASSAGES   FROM   ACTS   AND 
THE   PAULINE   EPISTLES 


ACTS 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

XI 

19,  20 

73 

I.  i8,  19 

236 

19,  20,  22-26 

59 

II.  4 

237 

22,  30 

136 

10 

77 

26 

54,  62, 

67,  252 

IV.  1 

21 

27,  28 

62 

36,37 

I36 

27-30 

87,  88 

37 

73 

XII 

3 

243 

V.  17 

21 

12 

73 

34-4o 

14,  24 

19-23 

242 

VI.  1-3,  9,  11,  13,  14 

22 

XIII 

54 

9 

5,23 

1 

70 

VII.  2 

30 

2 

136 

2,  30,  58 

23 

5 

73 

VIII.  1 

23.  59,  136 

5,  6-12 

74 

i-3 

25 

13 

77 

IX.  1-19 

27 

i6,43 

7 

2 

7,  24 

42,43 

80 

3-4 

33 

49 

81 

7,  9,  10-12,  17,  18 

32 

XIV. 

54 

II,  IC-17 

40 

4,  14 

70, 

82,  136 

13.  21 

25 

8-18 

268 

18 

41 

8-18,  13 

84 

19,  20,  23,  26 

43 

11-14 

263 

19,  23 

44 

12 

136 

23-25.  2S 

45 

15-17 

129 

27 

136 

21,  22 

85 

27,  28,  29 

46 

23 

86 

29 

48,50 

XV. 

1 

94 

30 

52 

1,  10,  24 

89 

40 

170 

1-29 

87,  8i 

X. 

60 

2,  31,  23 

90 

9-i6,  45 

60 

2,  26 

136 

46 

237 

7-i  1 

9i 

XI.  3 

104 

22-29 

93 

18 

61 

22,31 

101 

19 

95 

22,  32 

137 

T 

23 

3 

274 


INDEX  OF  PASSAGES 


CHAPTER 
XV. 


23 
31 

35.36 
36 

37-39 
37-40 
4i 


XVI.  1 


i-3 

1-6 

i,3. 

3 


19.  37 


4  ioi, 

6      no,  143,  261,  264, 

7 

7.8 

9 

10-17 

11 

12 

13.  18 

17,  20,  21 

22-24,  23.  26 

39 


XVII.  1 


2-4,4 

5 

5-7.  9.  14 

lO,  II,   12,  13,   14 

15 

15.   16,  34 

17,  18 

28 


XVIII.    2 


XIX, 


2,  5,  6,  7,  8,  11,  18 

3 

5 

8,  10 

9.  I0.  J3 
14 

18 

18,  19,  26 

21 

22,  23 

23 
25,  26 

i-7 


PAGE 

56,  103 

I02 

IO7 

76 

108 

77 

55 

85,  109 

263 

265,  266 

137 

240 

103,  266 

270,  271 

271 

112 

3°.  "3 

113.  236 

228 

114 

"5 
116 
117 
118 
119 
120 
121 
122 
123 
127 
126 
128 

3 
139.  214 
131 
164 
127 
132 
133 

7 
134 
140 

143 
144 
270 

145 
144 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

XIX.  6,  8,  9 

I46 

10 

147 

II,  12,  19 

149 

13,  13-20,  15, 

16 

I48 

18 

150 

21 

157 

24 

153 

26,  27,  28,  29 

154 

29 

169 

30,  31,  32,  33 

155 

31.  35-40 

156 

35,  24,  25 

143 

XX.  1 

228 

2 

166 

3 

167 

168 

4      85,1 

23. 

124, 

138, 

159. 

160, 

169 

201 

270 

S-XXI.  18 

"3 

236 

6 

114 

138 

170 

226 

5.6 

169 

7-1 1 

79 

243 

7-12 

170 

13,  14,  15, 18- 

-35 

171 

16,  6,  17 

244 

18-35 

150 

19 

I52 

20,  21,  27,  31 

34 

r5i 

23 

no 

3i 

146 

XXI.  1-3,  4 

172 

4.  7.  10 

244 

7." 

173 

10,  IO-II 

62 

12-14 

171 

13 

190 

16 

174 

17 

138 

175 

18 

99 

18,  19 

176 

24 

178 

27,  28,  29 

179 

29 

159. 

169 

226 

31.  32,  38 

180 

37-39 

183 

39 

4 

XXII.  3 

10,  12 

5 

24 

INDEX   OF   PASSAGES 


275 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

XXII.    6 

3° 

XXVII. 

2                          123,  I69, 

201 

202 

6-16 

27 

3.  4-  5-  6.  37-  38 

203 

7,8 

33 

8 

227 

8 

31 

9 

208 

253 

9 

32.33 

9, 10,  12, 15,  20,  21- 

11 

33 

26,  27,  29 

204 

12-16 

40 

io,  27,  30 

205 

15.  16 

3!.4i 

11,  30-32,  43 

201 

17-21 

49,50 

14-16 

207 

18 

47 

27 

253 

19 

7 

31,42 

200 

20 

23,  182 

32,  34,  35.  36,  43 

206 

22,  24 

182 

XXVIII. 

2.  7.  8,  9,  10,  11 

208 

25-29 

183 

3-6 

209 

28 

4.9 

6 

84 

30 

184 

11,  13.  14 

210 

XXIII.  1-10 

184 

11,  30 

253 

11 

205 

15 

212 

n>  19. 

23,  24 

190 

16 

217 

12,  13, 

is 

189 

17,  20,  21 

218 

16 

9 

20,  30 

217 

22 

193 

22,  23,  24-28,  31 

219 

29.  S2 

191 

23 

79 

222 

34.35 

2 

3°                       253, 

254 

255 

XXIV.  5,  6,  10-21 

192 

10 

251 

23,  24-27 

194 

ROMANS 

27 

249 

I. 

5 

38 

XXV.  1,  2 

195 

13 

157 

2,3 

190 

16 

39 

3-  4-  5, 

IS-  I6 

196 

18-32 

133 

8,  25,  26 

197 

II. 

12-16 

129 

9 

198 

III. 

30 

39 

26 

199,  222 

VII. 

14-2S 

36 

XXVI.  4 

12 

XIV 

21 

177 

6,7 

199 

XV 

18,  19 

151 

9 

24-36 

19 

124 

10 

si,  24,  25,  246 

20 

55 

11 

7-  2S,  246 

22,  23 

157 

12-18 

27 

23.24 

iS6 

13 

30,  31 

24 

157 

14 

3i.  32,  33 

24-28 

255 

19 

34 

25 

159 

20 

47,52 

25-28 

63 

24,32 

200 

30.31 

171 

XXVII.i-XXVIII.  16 

113,  236 

3i 

175 

I 

138 

XVI 

1-23 

212 

276 


INDEX  OF  PASSAGES 


HAPTER 

PAGE 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

XVI.  3,  4.  5 

I40 

II 

•  13 

I67 

5 

147 

IV 

6 

27 

7,  10,  11 

2I4 

V 

8 

18 

21 

I69 

16 

19 

23 

168 

VII 

5.  7.  " 
5-16 

164 

l62,   I67 

1  CORINTHIANS 

6,  7.  8,  13 

141 

VIII. 

-IX. 

159 

I.  11 

l6o 

3,  4,  18,  22 

I67 

11,  12,  i; 

,  16 

132 

6,  16,  17 

141 

23 

133 

6,  18,  22 

159 

26,28 

I32 

10 

l6o 

II.  3.  i-5 

133 

19 

86 

V.  9 

l6o 

IX. 

2 

157 

VII.  7,  8 

20 

2-4,  12,  13 

158 

VIII. 

IO3 

5 

168 

IX.  1 

27.  38 

X. 

10 

181 

4-6 

20 

XI. 

9 

164 

6 

109 

23-27 

152 

X.  4 

17 

23-33 

56 

XII.  i-ii 

132 

25 

204 

XIV. 

246 

32,33 

45 

6 

71 

XII. 

7 

165 

XV.  8 

27,38 

10 

166 

9 

26 

12 

150 

30.  31 

153 

14 

161,  163 

32 

147 

18 

162 

XVI.  1 

157. 

158, 

159, 

262,  263 

XIII. 

1 

161 

3 

132 

2,  10 

162 

3,4 

I69 

5.6 

157 

GALATIANS 

5-9 

162 

6 

168 

I. 

1 

70 

8,9 

147 

1,  12, 17,  18, 19 

65 

9 
17,  18 

153 
160 

1,  16 
2 

35 
79,  263 

19 

140, 

147,  213 

11-17 

16      ■                         34 

27 
,  38<  5i.  69 

2  CORINTHIANS 

16,  17 

42 

17 

47.53 

1-5 

153 

18 

43.  44,  242 

8 

IS2 

18-24 

46 

8,  10 

147 

19 

99 

9,  15-  16, 

23 

162 

21 

54.  267 

14 

164 

21,  22 

52 

II.  1 

161 

21-23 

109 

1,13 

162 

22-24 

55 

12,  13 

164 

22,  23 

25 

INDEX  OF   PASSAGES 


2/7 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

COLOSSIANS 

I.    23 

26 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

II.  1         44.  Si.  52. 

54. 141 

,  242,  265 

I.    1,6 

221 

i,9 

60 
87 

7 

I48 

I-IO 

II.    I 

I48 

2,  6 

90 
89 

IV.  3,  18 

217 

2,9 

7.  IO>  IX 

221 

4 
5 
6 

94 
262,  267 

93 

10 

10-13,  14 
n,  14 

73.  Io8 
138 
114 

9 

65.  91.  99 

9.7 

98.  177 

1  THESSALONIANS 

10 

63 

,  144.  158 

11,  12 

107 

I.  6 

122 

12 

99.  104 

7.8 

I23 

14-21 

105 

9 

I20 

HI.  3.4.  5 

in 

II.  2 

117 

19 

17 

13 

122 

IV.  8,  13,  14 

in 

14 

121,  122 

12-14 

no 

17-19 

I23 

13 

264 

18 

I27 

13.14 

77 

III.  1 

128 

14 

263,  267 

1,5 

123 

15 

40 

1.  2 

125,  127 

22-25 

17 

6 

131 

v.  7 

in 

n 

127,  I30 

11 

263,  267 

IV.  10 

123,  125 

VI.  11 

4i 

16,  17 

18 

EPHESIANS 

2  THESSALONIANS 

III.  1 

217 

I.  5-10 

18 

IV.  1 

217 

III.  17 

41 

V.  22-23 

21 

VI.  20 

22,  217 

1  TIMOTHY 

PHILIPPIANS 

I.  2 

137 

I.  1 

I38,  221 

3 

138,  225 

x3 

2l6,  217 

20 

229 

12,  14,  15-18 

220 

III.  14 

225 

23 

18 

IV.  13 

225 

25 
II.  24 

223,  254 
223,  254 

2  TIMOTHY 

III.  5 

IO 

I.  8,  12,  15,  16 

230 

6 

26,  36,  37 

16 

222 

21 

18 

18 

225 

IV.  2,  3 

"5 

II.  3,  9,  io,  n,  12 

230 

io,  iS,  22 

221 

III.  1,5 

137 

16 

120 

8 

17 

278 


INDEX  OF  PASSAGES 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

TITUS 

in.  is 

IO 

137 

CHAPTER 

PAGE 

IV.  6,  7,  8,  13,  21 

231 

1.  s 

I4I,  227 

10 

138, 

141 

230 

III.    12 

I4I,  228 

11 

I08 

138 

PHILEMON 

ii,  16,  17,  21 

230 

13,20 

226 

Verse  1,  9, 

io,  13                               217 

16 

259 

10 

221 

19 

140 

19 

148 

20,  21 

227 

22 

223,  228,  254 

INDEX   OF   LITERATURE   CITED1 


Baedeker,  Griechenland. 

Bethge,   Die  Paulinischen  Reden  der 

Apostelgeschichte. 
Blass,  Acta  Apostolorum. 
Bousset,  Theologische  Rundschau,  erstes 

Hep. 
Chase,  Expositor,  1893. 
Cicero,  Pro  A.  Lie.  Archia. 
Clemen,   Die    Chronologie  der  Pauli- 
nischen Briefe. 
Clement  of  Rome,  /  Corinthians. 
Conybeare  and  Howson,  The  Life  and 

Letters  of  St.  Paul. 
Eusebius,  Church  History. 
Farrar,  The  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul. 
Gfrorer  Das  Jahrhundert  des  Heils. 
Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews. 
Harnack,  Die  Chronologie  der  altchrist- 

lichen  Literatur. 
Holsten,  Das  Evangelium  des  Paulus. 
Holtzmann,  H.  J.,  Einleitung  in  das 

N.  T. 
Holtzmann,  0 '.,  Neutestamentliche  Zeit- 

geschichte. 
Hort,  Judaistir.  Christianity. 
Josephus,  Against  Apion ;  Antiquities; 

Jewish  War. 
Jiilicher,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T. 
Lewin,   The  Life  and  Epistles  of  St. 

Paul. 
Lightfoot,    St.   Paul's   Epistle    to   the 

Galatians. 
Lipsius,  Hand-Commentar ;  Briefe  an 

die  Galater,  R'omer,  Philipper. 
Marquardt,    Romische     Staatsverwal- 

tung. 
McGiffert,  The  Apostolic  Age. 


Meyer,    Handbuck    iiber  die    Apostel- 
geschichte. 
Mommsen,  Romisches  Staatsrecht. 
Pfleiderer,  Das  Urchristenthum. 
Plumptre,  St.  Paul  iti  Asia  Minor  and 

at  the  Syrian  Antioch. 
Ptolemy,  Geography,  Porta's  edition. 
Ramsay,   St.  Paul  the    Traveller  and 

the  Roman  Citizen ;    The  Church  in 

the  Roman  Empire  ;   The  Expositor, 

1892,  1896,  1S97. 
Re  nan,  St.  Paul. 
Schiirer,      Geschichte     des    judischen 

Volkes  im  Zeitalter  Jesu  Christi. 
Sieffert,  Handbuck  iiber  den  Brief  an 

die  Galater. 
Smith,  The   Voyage  arid  Shipwreck  of 

St.  Paul. 
Spitta,  Zur   Geschichte  und  Literatur 

des  Ur christ ent hums. 
Sterrett,  Papers  of  the  American  School 

of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens. 
Strabo,  Miiller's  edition. 
Strack,  Einleitung  in  den  Thalmud. 
Suetonius,  Claudius. 
Tacitus,  Annals  ;  History. 
Volkmar,  Paulus. 
Weber,  Die  Lehren  des  Talmuds. 
Weiss,  Einleitiaig  in  das  N.  T. 
Weizsacker,  Das  apostolische  Zeitalter. 
Wendt,    Meyer's   Handbuch  iiber  die 

Apostelgeschichte. 
Winer,  Real-  Worterbuch. 
Wood,  Discoveries  at  Ephesus. 
Zahn,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T. 
Zockler,  Studien  und  Kritiken,  1895. 


1  I  regret  that  the  work  of  Dr.  Cone,  Paul :  the  Man,  the  Missionary,  and  the 
Teacher,  and  the  work  of  Dr.  Abbott,  The  Life  and  Letters  of  St.  Paul  the 
Apostle,  did  not  appear  in  time  to  be  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume. 

279 


'A  WORK   PECULIARLY   SUITED   TO   THE   NEEDS  OF   STUDENTS." 

—  The  Chautauquan. 

THE    STUDENT'S 

LIFE   OF  JESUS. 

By  GEORGE  H.  GILBERT,  Ph.D.  D.D., 

Iowa  Professor  of  New  Testament  Literature  and  Interpretation 
in  Chicago  Theological  Seminary. 

Cloth.       i2mo.      $1.25,   net. 


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